The mobster murderer - Vito genovese

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you [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] this is a story of missed opportunities of how New York's finest repeatedly failed to snare the Mafia's most bloodthirsty killer Roy DeMeo when every flood was to automobile industry was to killing he streamlined it he organized it and he killed would efficiency in the 1970s DeMaio embarked unchecked on a murder spree one away killed you your body was not found his victims may have numbered as many as 200 people Roy DeMeo was as guilty as any serial killer not only did he kill them he cut their bodies so and defame them in the humanity forever people would be killed because they happened to accompany a target if you look up the word evil in the dictionary his picture would be that the big question is why didn't the police in the FBI stop Roy DeMeo sooner [Music] in 1975 detectives working for the New York organized crime squad made a gruesome discovery [Music] it was a quiet Sunday in Queens here in an alleyway behind the pantry pride meat market the police discovered the remains of a young adult male stuffed in various garbage bags the victim was Andrei Katz a small-time criminal Andrei Katz was a car thief a very very good car thief and he was supplying cars to body in fender places and he was supplying cars to use call-outs cats came from what was then a dangerous part of town the colossi district of Brooklyn during the 1970s Canarsie was the city's car crime epicenter it was infamous for its body shops garages and salvage yards [Music] back then many of the garages were so-called chop shops specializing in cannibalizing stolen cars for the parts but as the discovery of Katz's body showed somebody had been chopping up more than just cars no one would realize then that this gruesome discovery was the first clue in one of the most shocking crime sprees ever begun by one of the Mafia's most bloody murderers Roy DeMeo you [Music] why DeMaio's life could have been very different his mother had wanted him to be a doctor an uncle was a big-shot prosecutor another was a forensic scientist but Roy DeMeo never showed such promise after a start as a delivery boy in part-time and Prentice butcher he finally settled on a life of crime instead by the late 1960s Roy DeMeo was doing well for himself in his chosen career he was a successful street thug and racketeer a DeMaio wanted more yearn to become a made man a fully paid up member of a mafia crime family [Music] he got what he had always wanted one day you received a call somebody was looking for a meeting the call came from this house it was the home of nino gaggi gadji was a mafia captain in the infamous Gambino crime family of New York he was born into the operation when you know gadji and nino gaggi worked for paul castelao who was the head it again be no family the Gambino's were the most powerful of the five crime families that ran the New York underworld for DeMeo it was an honor a meeting with nino gaggi could be the first step on the path to becoming made gadji placed a male on the first run of the Mafia ladder he was made an associate working in partnership with Nino on various schemes to increase each other's wealth [Applause] [Music] DeMaio's business interests were a perfect match loan sharking gambling [Music] theft the honeymoon started well DeMaio expanded his loan shark book and soon Roy DeMeo was doing what any mafia boss wants he was making lots and lots of money but DeMaio was more than just a loan shark he was an entrepreneur [Music] he also started to eye up other areas of criminality like a pornography [Applause] at this time hardcore pornography was illegal some family bosses including the Gambino's frowned upon it [Music] DeMeo decided it was too good an opportunity to pass up nino gaggi turned a blind eye for one simple reason the money was excellent to help him enforce his deals DeMaio built around him his own specialist team of criminals he became known as the DeMeo crew each member at their own area of expertise it included Chris Harvey real name Rosenberg a 24 year old with a vicious temper the love of fast cars and drugs Chris idolized Roy he wanted to be boy he wanted to be in the mob ready to know he was that getaway driver Freddy was a racing car driver was highly respected as a car thief he could get away with any kind of a police chase other crew members included Joey testa and Anthony Center who was so close they were nicknamed the twins in all it was a curious mix of characters but they were united in their admiration of DeMaio they looked at input as a father image as he moved up the line he'd be able to move them up toy boy was a father figure a mentor and their boss [Music] the gang used to hang out at the bar here on flatlands Avenue Brooklyn today it is a church but at the time it was called the Gemini lounge and was the DeMeo gangs Clubhouse and base for operations Gemini allows with a a neighborhood watering hole wasn't a disco with a very quiet bar where a man coming home from work and going for a drink the only exception to it was the fact that it was owned by Roy DeMeo [Music] from his base at the Gemini lounge DeMeo started to expand his criminal operation what was an entrepreneur he he looked at many ways of expanding his business and he did it tremendously well in 1972 he pulled off an extraordinary feat for a career criminal he moved into the world of finance and got himself elected to the board of directors of a small bank the Brooklyn Credit Union originally the boy got involved on the orders of Nino to help want the money but DeMaio didn't stop there he saw an opportunity to steal cash as well as laundry so what happened is huh Roy moved into it organized it but then took it a step further DeMaio began to embezzle money he plundered the bank's capital and got other directors to do the same by the time he had finished it went bankrupt by then it had netted him and nino gaggi hundreds of thousands of dollars [Music] the collapse of a back even a small one could have been a disaster for DeMeo because the FBI and tax authorities started to investigate the failure of the credit union [Music] but both gadji and DeMaio had already moved on and nothing could be pinned on them the result they were free and they just walked away from DeMaio had managed to elude the authorities now he thought he could get away with anything even murder [Music] by 1973 Roy DeMeo was 32 his pornography business was doing well but DeMaio felt it could do even better [Music] then one of his business associates Paul Rothenberg was arrested [Applause] with Rothenberg under pressure Roy DeMeo feared he might reveal his own part in the industry so he planned to take action [Music] in July 1973 he coolly picked Rosenberg up and drove him to a quiet part of town it was his very first kill the execution changed him he found that killing gave him power he would now not hesitate to murder again whenever an obstacle presented itself the opportunity to do more killing soon arose due to DeMaio's increasing interest in another profitable business car theft the DeMeo crew was becoming big and lucrative car crime they had a highly set up organization of 17 to 20 car thieves a night in New York there was huge amounts of money to be made a car was often worth more for spares than as a running vehicle and everybody had their order everybody knew their Simon [Music] ours was stolen by his crew and either given new identities or broken down in the Knaus each op shops just to go out to steal any car they know exactly what kind of a car they had to steal somebody would want a Jaguar somebody would want a Cadillac somebody would want to Porsche they would steal on order the exact car they wanted the model the end the whole routine any luxury car you need parts were eventually so what they'd started to do that was chop them up and sell the parts I mean it was a very lucrative business it was at the height of all this the glocal car criminal and associate of DeMaio Andrei Katz got into trouble with the police Andriy got pinched for narcotics and they were afraid he would rat out to the police fearing the cats would squeal he consulted his mentor nino gaggi so way after having a meeting with Roy and his capo nino gaggi the order came down was to kill Andre cats DeMeo prepared an elaborate plan [Music] Katz was lured by a female accomplice into a trap [Music] was grabbed by them and they put a noose around his head and dragged them into a car then DeMaio and his crew took cats to the pantry pride meat market in Queens but this time DeMaio did something different inspired by the surroundings he put his training as an apprentice butcher to produce [Music] that's how andrei katz ended up in pieces and several garbage packs the next thing here you see is the headline census of dismembered body found in the back of a pantry break and what a bum thought was a leg a limb was actually under a thigh what a tattoo on it they gradually rep it all up and butcher paper and was neatly placed in the fat disposal then behind pantry pride in fact de Mayo had made a mistake the body parts were found because the rubbish wasn't collected over the weekend but yet again DeMaio got away with it the 1975 police investigation into Katz's murder failed to discover the gangs involvement no witnesses came forward no incriminating evidence was found [Music] for retired homicide detective Joe Wendling the reason was because Katz was the wrong kind of victim if it's a store owner and he's killed as the outcry but when an organized crime figure is killed there is not that much outcry there's not that much interest that the other detectives place and I viewed this as a tremendous weakness and I always went to my boss and sometimes I had to get down on my hands and knees begum it so let me look into the homicide now Roy DeMeo began to get a taste for this way of killing when DeMaio was probably one of the most vicious uncaring lowlifes that I ever came across dismemberment was rarely used by the Mafia but for DeMeo it now became his signature we had no respect for human life he had no respect for anybody except himself if you look up the word evil in the dictionary his picture would be there DeMeo found that anyone could be made to disappear they would cut the body up dismember the body neatly wrapped the body and the parts were placed in dumpsters the dumpsters were emptied and the contents taken to the immense fountain Avenue dump in Brooklyn all of the garbage from Brooklyn and Queens went that I'd done and found a new dump at a special area designated for meat byproducts and it had to be covered immediately with dirt and the bulldozers covered everything so if you dump something in you're not gonna find it ever ever ever so that's what it used it more and more people started to vanish [Music] people disappear and we have found he was a group of men that were murdering people and the bodies were never found [Music] today the dump has long since been filled and landscaped there is little clue as to the number of bodies DeMaio sent there [Music] as well as using the dump the crew also disposed of their victims another way they've dumped a lot of bodies in the Atlantic Ocean should I cut the bodies up put them in hefty bags and dump them off a boat in the middle of the ocean DeMeo became more and more skilled at his job [Music] he was getting so proficient that even the family boss Paul Castellano came calling for his hitman services [Music] he had found out that his son-in-law was cheating on his daughter one of the bodies was Paul Castellanos son-in-law and she had a miscarriage because she caught him cheating on her and Paul had the male kill the son alone again the body was never found amazingly despite all the disappearances the police department failed to spot a pattern except one person detective Joe Wendling first Wendling and then another colleague in auto crimes John Murphy spotted something all these murders were linked to the world of car theft I'd evolved an informer that said look at the amount of car thieves that are disappearing I think they're cutting them up and that's what we're not finding him but despite his lead no one took it further few shared weblinks enthusiasm to investigate deeper in fact the forces of law and order were in crisis financial mismanagement meant recruitment of police was frozen morale was low the public's faith in the police department had sunk too pitiful levels the auto crimes unit was overstretched and the FBI were not interested in local car crime so these were great times for DeMeo with nothing to stop him business boomed 77,000 cars were stolen in New York City in 1974 alone no area in the country is safe from the car thief it affects everybody in the country the big metropolitan areas however are suffering the most rapid rate of growth for DeMeo the money kept flooding in oh it's a tremendous epidemic car crimes in New York and it was a tremendous slew of warehouses found with skeletons of causes however DeMaio wasn't having it all his own way another law enforcement unit was looking at his crews meetings at the Gemini lounge it was a separate outfit the organized crime task force of the Queens District Attorney's Office and detective Kenny McCabe Kenny was the intelligence officer of the DA's office he maintained all the organized crime files he covers all the funerals he covers all the weddings and he writes his little notes and he has folders upon folders of all the families then Joe Wendling John Murphy and Kenny McCabe did with the wider law-enforcement community were failing to do they started comparing notes [Music] convinced DeMaio was involved in murder the men started surveillance but they could only do so in their own time what had escaped them though was that DeMaio I just received a massive promotion in 1977 Roy DeMeo got what he had always wanted he became a fully paid-up mobster and was formally inducted into the Mafia crime family there was two ways of being made in the mob you become an earner you become a hitter right you killed somebody or earnt where the male was both roy demeo became a so-called made man working full-time for capo nino gaggi it was a huge moment in DeMaio's life and the realization of a dream so DeMaio and his crew were over the moon with this elation came more murders [Music] it was going so well the crew even took up freelance work for any paying customer it was murder-for-hire what became known as the murder machine who I decided to expand the business into killing not just killing enemies but now killing for the family he taken any contract he invite him to a party and that would be the last time you see him that's what Roy did he expanded the murder [Music] 1979 was a high point for the DeMeo murder machine to cope with demand the croute of the killings and dismemberments in-house now most hits were done in the rear of the Gemini lounge using a well practiced method now behind the Gemini lounge there was an apartment rented by a guy named Joseph Guglielmo there would lure their victims to the place and they would bring them in the victim would be shot in the head by Roy DeMeo and the head swiftly wrapped in a towel Chris Rosenberg would stab the victim in the heart to stop the bleeding then the body would be left to drain for 45 minutes they brought him into the bathroom and put him in the tub then they cut the body up and put all the parts in a hefty garbage bag after they got them cutting the body up and draining the blood out of it in the bathtub they all sat down wit Roy DeMeo when they ordered a pizza and they were eating the pizza with bloody hands and had the spic the police people were [Music] after a while the dismemberment process became a sadistic ritual there was no need to do this this was just how would you say vicious evilness I mean mob hits normally aren't done that way why go to that length when they could just put a bullet in his head and dumped in a mini ocean they did it just to be vicious and I was the mayor don't because it was a cycle [Music] despite killing nearly a hundred people Roy DeMeo could now do bigger and bigger deals so he got involved in a major plan to export stolen cars to Kuwait he was now an international criminal [Music] needless to say several people were made to disappear in the process [Music] but the plan netted him and Nino huge profits in no time for this for 5,000 cars a week were coming in via his contact in Kuwait [Music] as a sideline DeMaio was getting deeper into cocaine deals as well drugs were frowned upon by Paul Castellano as they tended to attract attention from law enforcement [Music] nevertheless mainly through crew member Chris Rosenberg coke deals came thick and fast in early 1979 Rosenberg went to Florida device and coke of a group of Cubans Chris Rosenberg goes down to Florida and goes to a narcotics deal for a kilo and he got be delivering it to New York on his return to New York Rosenberg made a major mistake which would have massive consequences for DeMeo the Cubans came to deliver the drugs they come up to New York to sell him the key in being the entrepreneur that he is so sake I'm not gonna pay them I'm gonna kill them and he kills them he ones up killing three people the Cubans bosses were outraged by Rosenberg's actions one boy found out he said they're gonna send an army up here and he says they're gonna kill you and they said what name did you use and he said I went by Krista mail what he said my god my family's dead they're gonna come up and kill my whole family Rosenberg's killings risked an all-out cuban war with the Gambino clan in recompense the Cubans demanded a scalp and what became known as the Cuban crisis so DeMaio decided to offer up a sacrifice his friend Chris Rosenberg so he decides Chris has to go instead Chris he shoots Chris they had to make sure the Cubans knew they had kept their part of the deal so de Mayo could not make the body just disappear he needed a stunt Chris can't be dismembered Chris has to be left so it's going to make front-page headlines they parked on my Floyd Bennett Field sat him in his car put a nine-millimeter between his legs and the machine gun in the car and yes it didn't you made front-page headlines it wasn't bad gone DeMaio returned to business [Music] he remained popular with this can be no family boss Paul Castellano because of his specialist skills why would I get killed because all he needed his guns the mail and member very very well respected and this added power to Paulie nobody would make a move on Paulie so that's how important right the mail was to poi however the Cuban crisis did leave a mark on DeMaio he became paranoid the Cubans wanted to kill him this caused him to make a major mistake [Music] he mistook an 18 year old vacuum salesman for a cuban assassin why we're so nervous about it that a plural Electrolux salesman going around to the houses in Mississippi comes up through his house to sell my vacuum cleaner they chase this blue individual halfway across run out and kill this guy and then disappear despite the killing being in broad daylight law enforcement to a black no witnesses dared come forward but this time the Gambino family boss Paul Castellano started to get concerned DeMaio was drawing too much attention [Music] [Applause] then in late 1979 Castellana wanted to kill two made men in his family so he instructed nino gaggi and roy demeo to make the hit and the order was sent down to nino gaggi kill and you do it so Nino trusted his right-hand man his top Killa Roy so they set up Amina would have a father and son they had them in the car but the father realized this is not going to turn out well a local off-duty policeman saw the murders and gave chase a sergeant trying to raise money in his off hours driving a cab sees this flesh and everything stops and winds up at a big shootout Nino get shot Roy xscape s-- the simple fact was that the murder and shootout involving the policeman was something no one could ignore so at last the investigators began to join all the dots between DeMaio and his crew between car crime and the numerous Canarsie murders and between nino and head man paul castellano then the FBI made a key breakthrough in 1980 a customs official working the docks spotted a consignment of cars destined for Kuwait it appeared the cars had been stolen and given new registration documents the intelligence quickly led to a warehouse the FBI raided it to find it full of stolen cars ready to be exported by DeMeo to Kuwait a fingerprint at the scene pointed to the DeMeo crew it just showed you the scale of the case here was a Mafia family not only selling stolen cars and broken but shipping them out to another country I mean this was unheard of this now became an international case it became very interesting to everybody and everybody wanted a piece of cake [Music] by 1982 the pressure on DeMaio was stepped up a new task force moved into offices at Foley Square New York to take over the running of the case it was headed by top shot prosecutor Walter Mack Walter is such a total attorney and this guy Walter mag is one of the finest prosecutors I ever met without any question I mean a guy had guts and he's the one who put this whole page together the man just troves himself into a case with his full soul max task was to bring all the crime agencies together under one roof the team has put together of federal state local city investigators the team soon included Joe Wendling we sat down we spark Walters interest and we asked well to make a promise to us that if he took this case he would see to its end Walter Mack did and soon it became very clear that what had started as a large-scale car crime case it was turning into something even bigger the police department at the time had brought an auto crime case over to us really wasn't considered a mafia case although there was some expectation that the Mafia would emerge it was pretty much what auto crime case as Macan the team investigated further Roy DeMeo murder machine emerged and what happened in the next six months to a year was an extraordinary combination of motivated investigators who felt strongly that the individuals in the crew had evaded responsibility for truly heinous acts and they were looking for some means and mechanism I perhaps drawing it all together slowly and surely Mac and his team built the case against the male and his boss nino gaggi this time they were determined they would not have ended them [Music] it was a commitment to the victims the moms the husband's the wives brothers and sisters that it was time to bring justice to this situation and that's what kept them going one tactic they explored was to pester DeMaio to see if he would crack you [Music] soon they had something to get in really worried a major breakthrough [Music] one day the phone rang a new Informer calling himself only Harry professed to knowing all about the stolen car ring Harry was Vito Arina an associate of the DeMeo gang we take him into Manhattan and a Sunday night with nobody there except the US Attorney in us and we sit him down and we tell them what we want we want all the information about the chop shops and the homicides [Music] Irina began to sing and their jaws drop Vittorio sits us down for the next week and a half and fills us in on every homicide they did and how they did them and how to cut the body sir says the easiest part of the body to chop up is the head the head snaps off like a pencil and we're like an oar on this guy we never heard anything like this in our lives and he tells us all about Roy DeMeo to prove his credentials still further the informant pointed the team to one of the victims Jos corny [Music] his body was found just where Arina said it would be in a barrel of cement at the bottom of the lake we find the body was all skeletal now and there's the dungaree jacket hungary pants and the wallet and his jacket and by virtue of that wallet he had his dentists name in wallet which gave us the idea in about an hour as a result Joe Wendling was sent to the Gemini lounge to confront DeMaio and to offer him a deal to see if he could be turned a new Roy was involved in so many murders so many killings that he would be a wealth of information to the police Roy DeMeo was having none of it instead Joe Wendling found it was DeMaio who was offering him a deal Roy said you can take me down you guys you're old-timers why do you want to get involved in it a million dollars Swiss bank account wife's name give me the format and go live like a king I thrown around away and I said I sooner take you out of trunky a car I said but come with us and I'll save your life he said I'm a good soldier I'm in the mob I mean they call me I'll go like a good soldier with the case coming together well and evidence building up it seemed like it was only a matter of time before DeMaio would be in court [Music] then a disaster that risked ruining everything as the trial date approached Roy DeMeo went missing [Music] the police searched for the mayor informants said he was seen on the streets looking paranoid and heavily armed then the police took a call [Music] Roy DeMeo the ruthless murderer was found dead in the boot of his Cadillac I went down a when they popped the trunk there was Roy frozen to a chandelier and I said man what a tribute to us they killed him they killed this man was such a moneymaker to them his Cadillac car was dumped in the parking lot behind the Verona Boat Club in Brooklyn where'd the Mayo died the way he lived as a street rat in the fetal position in a trunk of a car there was no sympathy or empathy or anything like that from anybody in law enforcement included myself [Music] the obvious question was who might have done it for the law enforcement team Gambino family boss Paul Castellano was the man with the motive Roy DeMeo was killed because Paul Castellano decided he was a liability they realized we were getting close to him to the Mayo and they felt that we were able to arrest them and incarcerate him and turn him into an informant he would have brought the whole empire down castellana was right to be afraid even though he was dead DeMeo had left plenty of damaging evidence evidence that would bring destruction to the family soon after the task force raided the Gemini Lounge armed with a search warrant we call our people in we take the bedroom upon and in the drains we found the but blood never goes away contrary to what you might see on television if blood is in pipes in a wall the blood will remain there forever and identifiable so we were able to do that we were able to match the blood with the victims and the criminals and a whole routine that's how we made our case this evidence led the team to DeMaio's boss and Castellano henchman nino gaggi the case evolved into US vs gadji but Paul Castellano wasn't safe either he too was called to face a trial [Music] as the jury took a two-week recess at Christmas 1985 Castellano headed out for a steak with a loyal associate he was cut down by unknown gunmen so it was a setup then bring him up there and they whack him as he's getting out of his car Paulie got whacked as a tribute to all of us and Walter because of the fact we put in all the killers all the top soldiers this enabled them to kill Paul with Castellano gone in a final trial the remnants of the DeMeo crew and their capo nino gaggi stood trial for the remaining murders including car thief andrei katz was not some case that was built overnight done in a week it was years of investigating talking to informers sending guys to Kuwait and with the hard work of Walter Mack in the end the worst killer the Mafia ever produced left as his legacy not only a crime family in disarray but also something more chilling [Music] you only a fraction of his murders had ever been solved the truth is we will never know the real number Roy bragged about 150 individuals and I would say we're somewhere between 150 to 200 is probably an accurate number I think Roy was extremely efficient and vicious in protecting his turf we had people calling us you know about their daughter that disappeared you know hang out at the bars or stuff like that you know and as to which we had no information as far as giving victims justice that's kind of nebulous how can you ever accomplish that I'm of the school thinking that there is no such thing as closure for the families of people's Roy DeMeo was as guilty of serial killing as any serial killer not only did he kill them he cut their bodies up and detained them in the humanity forever this was a vicious evil human being if you could call me human me and I would even call on that in missing several vital opportunities to stop DeMeo the law-enforcement machine must take its share of the blame but that same law-enforcement machine did eventually come together yet the overriding question remains could it have done so sooner and found answers for the families of his victims [Music] you [Music] you [Music] you [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] on the 2nd of May 1957 Frank Costello head of the Luciano crime family had enjoyed a dinner with friends in an East Side restaurant we took a cab to his apartment the Majestic on the fashionable Upper West Side of New York Central Park as Costello entered the lobby a large man stepped out of the shadows raised his arm and said this is for you Frank [Music] [Applause] this organized hit on the top mafia boss would signal the rise of the most dangerous gangster in America Vito Genovese Vito Genovese he was never anything but a homicidal maniac [Applause] [Music] probably most despicable gangster ever through run the streets of the city but Genovese is rise would also be a major turning point in the history of the Mafia and his actions would bring down the full force of the FBI on the mob have any the same is it true that you have a head of the Mafia in this country so that now [Music] vito genovese arrived in New York from Naples when he was 15 years old and joined the thousands of other Italian immigrants to hit the city shores at the turn of the century jeanna basic grew up in the slums of New York from the beginning he was involved in his terrifying street violence world and he never changed Genovese was a product of big gutter with New York City he was constantly in conflict everything had to be out of the barrel of a gun that was Genovese lease records show that over the next 10 years Genovese was charged with shooting a man in Queens running down and killing a man in Brooklyn having a loaded revolver tucked in his belt on the Lower East Side and murdering another hoodlum [Music] vito genovese I'll give you a great example what he did he fell in love with a woman named Anna who was married to someone else Genovese and his dogs threw her husband autoroute so he Kamaria and he married Retta was just a ritual with him he had no conscience this appetite for killing did not go unnoticed by the mid-1920s Genovese was a hitman for the greatest mafia boss of them all Charles Lucky Luciano [Applause] vito genovese rose to the top by intimidation and the guy hold on in the good that was Lucky Luciano Lucky Luciano used Vito Genovese as his Intimidator Luciano may have looked very cultivated but he needed hitman and when he needed hitman one of the first people who turned to was Vito Genovese by 1931 Genovese was acknowledged as lucky Luciano's right-hand man and underboss and was one of the key hitmen sent by youichi Arno to kill rival boss Giuseppe Masseria [Music] such was his reputation the Genovese was known as Don Vito the great Vito and in 1936 Genovese got the chance to take the top job when mafia boss Luciano was convicted on prostitution charges and sent to prison for 50 years [Music] when lucky was convicted and sentenced to long prison term veno considered himself to be the heir apparent but things didn't go to plan Genovese now also found himself being pursued vito genovese I had been involved in a murder in the early 1930s and somehow it managed to beat the rap the victim had been one of Genevieve's gangsters would demanded too big a share of a crooked card game [Music] now an informer came forward and pointed the finger at Genovese as the man who had ordered the hit [Music] just as he was about to take control of the Luciano family Genovese was forced to flee to Italy to escape the murder charge and the electric chair [Music] [Applause] with Genovese now out of the picture Luciano sent word from his prison cell for Frank Costello to step in as boss [Applause] just like Genovese Frank Costello was born in Italy he was four years old when he arrived in East Harlem with his parents in 1900 his father ran a grocery shop and from an early age Costello despised his humbleness he loathed the way his father was willing to settle for a life of poverty Costello chose the streets rather than work with his father and joined one of the violent gangs of new in 1915 Costello was arrested and sentenced to a year in jail for carrying a gun but this event changed him and would make him a very different man to Genovese [Music] on his release Costello decided to use his brains not bullets to get ahead the people that he worked with the were prone to violence foes by definition and he understood that murders were bad for business he would never be a kind of hitman goon a muscle man type he was a gentleman gangster he was never going to be a thug and he also latched on to something called slot machines by the 1930s Frank Costello was known to the underworld as king of the slots his illegal one-armed bandit machines were grossing five hundred thousand dollars a day he made millions and established him as somebody he was known as an earner not a guy who goes out and has to commit hits or violent crimes with Genovese gone Frank Costello was a very powerful man he was now the head of the New York Mafia the largest mob family in America with more than 400 soldiers beneath him Costello easily fill Luciano's shoes and continue to add billions of dollars to the families fortunes [Music] far away in Italy Genovese was just trying to make his way it is said that when he fled the US on the murder charge he had 750,000 dollars in his truck Genovese was going to need it we got it Benito Mussolini the head of the national fascist party in Italy was fiercely against the Sicilian Mafia but Genovese would soon discover that he was open to office Jenna bassy cottoned up benito mussolini by providing money by buying donations to fascist buildings and he even managed to pull off a hit for Mussolini in New York there was a newspaper which have been a persistent critic of Mussolini he went to Don Vito Genovese who got worried to his killers in New York and they they murdered the editor as a reward for Jenna visas donations and services mussolini gave him an italian knighthood but of course most Eleni was known for shooting mafiosos and so he could ever really relax when world war two began Genovese seized another opportunity and he was a pretty crafty guy general basic turned out he worked both for the axis and for the Allies when the Americans invaded Sicily in 1943 Mussolini was overthrown so Genovese quickly switched sides I became an interpreter and advisor to the US military government they thought he was being in favor what he was really doing he was running a black marketeering scheme he was stealing the supplies from army bases by corrupting army offices and selling it on the black market in Italy [Music] but for all his Sicilian success Genovese was still wanted for the card game killing and the New York Police had new evidence implicating him a man called Peter la temper a come forward claiming he had heard Genovese planning the murder he was now held in protective custody as chief witness against Genovese the American authorities finally caught up with Genovese in Naples in August 1944 Genovese was brought back to New York to face the murder charge but he had no intention of taking the rap [Music] [Music] on the 16th of January 1945 the temper complained that he was suffering from a gallstone problem he was given painkillers by his guards two hours later he was dead a toxicologist who had examined his body reported that he had been given enough sedatives to kill eight horses [Music] with 'let AMPA out of the way there was no case against Genovese the judge told him I cannot speak for the jury but I believe if there was a shred of corroborating evidence you would have been condemned to the chair by devious means you have thwarted justice time and time again Genovese was acquitted Vito Genovese was back on the streets but he was not the boss the man in charge was still his old rival Frank Costello and he was thriving Frank Costello fashions himself as a man gangster he fashioned himself as a businessman sometimes border we know an aristocracy he mixed with politicians congressmen journalists authors judges cops and city councilors with his connections Costello developed a reputation as the boss who could bridge the legitimate world and the mob The Salvation Army even made him their vice chair [Music] Genovese could only watch from the sidelines as Costello became a real New York player Genovese was intimidated by Costello's intelligence he knew that Costello could get with words what he could only get out of a gun and he was jealous of that such was his power that before a judge could be appointed it had to be cleared by Frank Costello he didn't just know judges and DA's and politicians he bought them potential named candidates in the Democratic Party went to see him hat in hand asking for his blessings he was an absolute corrupt when the Mafia gets control of a political judicial system when they're deciding what goes a pass they're deciding how justice is meted out then you're in danger Frank Costello even though we dressed well look civilized look cultivated was one of the most in danger Asaf EO sy in American history Costello became known as the Prime Minister that title was given to him by the media they made Frank Costello the American Winston Churchill in the underworld that doesn't mean he was boss of bosses there was no such position but as a prime minister is in most countries he was the first among equals and sometimes a little more equal than they were [Music] Genovese seemed to be out of it but he realized the Castella was making a big mistake he preferred to deal only with the big guys but ignored the little guys Frank Costello neglected the troops Frank Costello only concerned himself with the capo when the Capo's is Italian for captain members of crews that had been loyal a complaint they had been neglected that the Costello didn't favor them [Music] Genevieve saw this resentment as his opportunity to begin undermining Costello's leadership [Music] the soldiers the button men in the family knew that Vito Genovese was the real deal whereas Costello was a was a person who is a little out of touch Vito Genovese never lost sight of the fact that he was a criminal and Frank Costello lost sight of that fact Frank Costello started to believe his own imagery his own new everybody knew that Genovese wanted Frank's job but he couldn't take the job the other bosses would've allowed that as long as Frank was riding high Frank had the connections Genovese did not have the connection so what he does is he begins to make sure he's strong that his rackets are beginning to produce money so he had both money and he has soldiers and he has hitmen in case there's a real showdown now Genovese was waiting and hoping Costello would make a wrong move he wouldn't have to wait long in 1950 an ambitious democrat senator from tennessee named Estes Kefauver headed a committee to investigate organized crime in America cough alpha called on more than 600 gangsters underworld figures politicians and policemen to testify before them the country was transfixed as the hearings hit the headlines and television channels [Music] I remember the Kefauver investigations I was a young very young lad and I'ma be watching those and it was a real revelation I do we began to see that there was these people among us criminals who are very well organized and very deliberate in their activities and controlled a great deal of the criminal activity in this country many of the witnesses refused to say anything but not Frank Costello he agreed to answer questions he thought he'd get on the witness stand and come out as a gentleman as a real businessman and then had this kind of outlook or outward appearance that he wouldn't look like a ruffian like Ahuja and Costello billed as the most influential underworld leader in America became the star attraction but then Costello made a miscalculation he surprised everybody by insisting that his face shouldn't be shown on television and the committee instructed the broadcaster's to respect his request the color vision is not done any part of mr. Costello [Music] the only option left open for the TV crews was to film his hands and the subsequent images of Costello's testimony became known as the hand ballet whenever the questions about his criminal activities got too tough or too near the knuckle Castella would rub his palms together tighten his fingers Griffi glass of water drum on the table in front of him or crumple and tear pieces of paper and although the television cameras were not allowed to show Costello's face the newsreel cameras and press photographers and no such restrictions the fast arrow is going to face the camera and not you how does it look at posture is the year photographer says to the little boy can you smile a little bit as this country come up your anticipations have you ever done for your country is a good citizen well I don't know what you say where I what you mean by that but you're looking back over the years and out at that time when you became a citizen I mean now standing 20 odd years after that you must have in your mind something you've done that you can speak off to your creditors American citizens if so what are they paid by tax I pay my taxes now is his answer now in his mind he thought that was enough he didn't think that he had to join the army two Marine Corps I pay my taxes everybody pays the taxes they work up to a country but he was the original superstar made my television [Music] ridiculed and humiliated Costello finally refused to answer any further questions and produce a note from his doctor okay typically the day doctor will examine mr. Costello this morning all right there Arlo condition testify until then until I'm well enough you refuse to testify father absolutely when I testify I want to testify truthfully and I can my mind don't function Castello had been publicly destroyed by the exposure and he left the Kefauver committee hearings as the Justice Department's number-one target once he failed at the father everybody went after he was indicted for tax evasion he was convicted he was indicted for lying to Congress when you are the Prime Minister the man who can work the miracles and all of a sudden you fall off your horse and fall on your face you are not Prime Minister anymore Frank Costello paid the price of television by him appearing in front of the Kefauver committee hearing and it being televised that was the beginning of the end of Frank Costello in fact that was the beginning of the end of the mob it took many many years and Frank Costello was the beginning of it because it brought the attention of the general public to what the mob was actually doing [Music] but for one mobster Costello's failure was good news vito genovese and he was going to make the most of it one of the things he does he starts bumping or killing Costello's hit the first on his list was one of Costello's top hitmen William William or Moretti my Rexy had grown up with Costello in East Harlem and was now a feared New Jersey racketeer with his own army of 60 soldiers he was also one of Costello's strongest supporters but this planned execution wasn't just business it was highly personal Moretti had been promoted to Costello's underboss his second-in-command this meant that Genovese had been bumped down to just the captain of his old crew Genovese had chosen his target well Moretti was suffering from advanced syphilis which was spreading to his brain this had the worrying effect of freeing up his speech and it was now feared that he would start talking to the press Genovese used this to his advantage because of Moretti's condition he approached the Commission the Mafia's Board of Directors and asked for their permission for a mercy killing the commission was set up by Lucky Luciano in 1931 as a democratic system for dealing with all the mobs affairs it operated by strict rules no boss could be hit without the commission's permission and they gave it to him the hit would take place on the morning of the 5th of October 1951 as ordinary New Yorkers went about their business [Music] [Music] Genovese had now made it quite clear to Costello that he was coming after him and Costello was in no position to fight back he was locked in continual combat with the US authorities of a contempt of court and failure to pay his taxes over the next six years Costello was in and out of jail when he came out on bail in March 1957 Genovese finally decided to strike Genovese many many times try to get the OK of the Commission we killed touch dollar but the Commission wouldn't give it so Genovese decided to hit Costello anyway Genovese now studied Costello's routine the 66 year old Costello took cabs or walk to his various meetings around the city like he'd always done without the aid of bodyguards or bulletproof cars [Music] it made him an easy target other bosses head of army of bodyguards around them Costello said if they're going to kill you that's the first ones though bright [Music] Genovese gave the contract to Vincent Gigante was a former prizefighter who became Genovese his chauffeur he was a real bug tough guy I mean he can hit the drop aback he was the mirror image over Genovese gonna be slight them for that he was just the ruthless coat on the evening of May the 2nd 1957 Frank Costello enjoyed a dinner with some friends in an East Side restaurant after the meal he took a cab to his apartment now Costello lived in a very upscale apartment overlook simple cloth it was known as the majestic apartment Costello was so sure of himself even though we knew gentle a/c was around he came home one night walked in through his Lobby and he was met by gigantic you can't he raised his gun and yelled this is for you Frank [Music] Castello was covered with blood when he reached the Russa veldt Hospital but the bullet had only shaved his skull one of Genovese top soldiers Joe Valachi later observed that you ghonte had wasted a whole month practicing there's some debate on whether Gigante missed him on purpose or he just missed them out of an eptas I choose the latter he just missed him but there's a rule in a mob if you try and you miss you don't try again the doorman of the majestic identified Gigante as Costello's hitman Gigante quickly gave himself up and was put on trial for attempted murder [Music] this was a very dangerous time for Genovese if Costello confirmed it was Gigante police would come after him [Music] but at the trial Costello observed the matthew rule of omertà the code of silence and told the jury that he didn't recognize Gigante Gigante was acquitted and as he left the court he walked over to Costello held out his hand and said thanks Frank Genovese knew that Costello alive posed a grave threat to him and he heard that he was secretly meeting with the Lord High executioner of murder incorporated Albert Anastasia guns ice picks and strangling ropes were his stock-in-trade he was a tough ruthless man not at all like Costello who was his good friend if there had been a move against Costello with Anastasia still alive there would have been a counter-attack by Anastasia [Music] Genovese decided to strike first the problem was getting to Anastasia he lived in a New Jersey mansion guarded by ferocious dogs and barbed wire fences and always traveled with bodyguards [Music] Genovese needed somebody on the inside and he approached Carlo Gambino then an ambitious anastasiya leftenant and convinced him they would both be better off with anastasiya dead [Music] [Applause] on the morning of October 25th 1957 at 10:15 a.m. Albert Anastasia walked into a barber shop in midtown Manhattan his bodyguards parked the car in an underground garage and then took a walk [Music] anastasiya closed his eyes and relaxed into the barber's chair two men in suits with scarves covering their lower faces walked up behind him anastasiya was literally blasted after chair Genovese now sprang into action he immediately announced that he was the head of the family and straightaway he turned on his old adversary Frank Costello Costello knew that his time was over his reign was complete that if he didn't surrender or abdicate he was going to be assassinated Genovese stripped Costello of all his gambling assets and interest in Las Vegas Florida the Caribbean and New York he only allowed Costello to live on the one condition that he'd get out and never be involved with the rackets again Castello sent the message to vito genovese a don vito it's yours murder control Genovese had done it he was now the boss of the largest mafia family in New York but he was also in deep trouble blinded by ruthless ambition he had ordered two hits on two mafia leaders without the okay the governing body the Commission and he had done something else that some Commission members found uncomfortable Genovese had also moved big time into drug-dealing danav AC always thought that narcotics was a good deal for the mob with a delusional family he was in charge from drug trafficking but Congress had recently passed tough new drug laws and many Mafia bosses were worried about the consequences drugs what he and what I mean by heat is that if you dealt drugs and you got back and you're facing a lot of time in jail you're gonna roll you're gonna become a rack we could go after 30 years in prison they felt that if they kept their handle in drugs they would be able to avoid that [Music] the Mafia heads around the country now feared that Genovese was a loose cannon who didn't play by the rules and his drug trafficking operations could bring the FBI down on them to save his skin Genovese requested a meeting of the Commission to explain his recent actions in New York the Commission was not supposed to call another National Convention which will be held every five years for four more years but Jenna veissy insisted that the bosses from all the other families in the New York families had to assemble because of these important developments in New York and he wanted it known that he was a boss of a family so they picked the same place they had met the previous year the National Convention in a small town in upstate New York known as Apple ACK [Music] it would prove to be the biggest mistake of Genovese his life Oh [Applause] on November the 14th 1957 more than 60 senior mafia bosses with their advisors and bodyguards traveled from cuba italy and from all over the united states to a hilltop estate in a small sleepy hamlet called at the Lockean a hundred and eighty miles northwest of New York City and far from the prying eyes and surveillance of the city cops [Music] a pelican was the home of mafia boss Joseph Barbara his guests will include all the most powerful members of the Mafia like Joe Bonanno carmine Galante Sam Giancana and Joe Pesci and at the head of the table don't Vito Genovese Apalachin meeting was a meeting of mobsters from all over the country keep in mind that the mob as we know today and as it was formed in 1931 was a hundred percent control by the five families in New York all the other cities were ancillary that answer to New York mobsters but local detective sergeant Edgar cross well of the New York State Police I've been watching the events the local police noticed something strange all these out of town isn't dozens of cars were pulling into one farmhouse in remote area cross well suspicions have been aroused when he noticed that Barbera was booking up the local hotel it also been tipped off by a local food supplier that Barbera had ordered 20 pounds of steak 20 pounds of veal cutlets and 15 pounds of cold cuts that day [Music] Krauss well I've been keeping a close eye on the bearer as he knew he had mob connections [Music] he called for backup [Music] well we get the call send as many people as you can tap awaken we have a thing going on cross well ordered his troopers to surround the house we had a lot of people that they have thought was the underworld and that we were I pick him up and when the guests got the news that was blind panic [Music] some rush to their cars others fled through the woods ripping their silk suits against the brambles as they ran [Music] Krauss well sent his troopers in after them we saw one fellow he was standing on the back porch of a local house but he wore a nice Homburg hat and he had a nice overcoat with a fur collar and we knew right away that he didn't fit in we went in it took control of him and put him in the shop car with us crossbell and his men eventually managed to round up 60 mafia members including New York leaders prefer chee Bonanno Galante and Gambino everybody had the same excuse that they heard Barbara was sick and they have all dropped in to see them pay their respects here you had this obvious convention of Italian with sicilian american mobsters and you couldn't dismiss it just as a casual meeting and the claim by all of them that they went to visit a sick friend nobody could swallow that the Justice Department believed that at least fifty escaped including Chicago boss Sam Giancana a pelican was the largest mafia meeting ever rumbled by American police and the mob would never hold one of this size again [Music] far from Jenna visas triumphant moment announcing to the Commission his ascension to the head of the Luciano crime family he had exposed them all to the authorities [Music] as a direct result of Appalachian a federal grand jury found 20 mafia members guilty of conspiracy to commit perjury and to obstruct justice and impose sentences of between 3 and 5 years eventually these were overturned by the United States Court of Appeals on the basis of insufficient evidence but the damage had been done Genovese had awakened the sleeping giant the FBI and it hit them like a bunch own I think the Appalachian organized crime meeting the meeting of the bosses of America's organized crime in one location really brought home to the American public and to the FBI the magnitude of this problem [Music] up to this point the director of the FBI j.edgar hoover have been reluctant to admit the existence of organized crime in America he had even written there was no such thing as organized crime or the Mafia and the claim that there was a national crime syndicate was baloney all of a sudden everything that they had been saying that there was no national organization that crime was essentially local and it was a local law enforcement to deal with the king obviously incorrect they were so brazen it was so bold and so powerful but they would actually have a meeting much as any large legitimate American corporation would meet to decide internal issues if you will their organization their direction what they wanted to do in a way of legitimate company would do this this really imprinted itself on the American public and certainly on the FBI that was it for the FBI I mean if there was a moment where it was absolutely patently clear that they had a role to do that they had not been performing that was it [Music] all this changed after Appalachian the FBI were galvanized into action Hoover immediately commissioned a special report to confirm whether the Mafia actually existed it declared the truth of the matter is the available evidence makes it impossible to deny logically the existence of a criminal organization known as the Mafia which for generations has plagued the law-abiding citizens of Sicily Italy in the United States [Music] after the Appalachian meeting the intelligence-gathering about organized crime became very much institutionalized inside the FBI most of the investigations were intelligence investigations where we gathered information about who they were and the kinds of activities they were involved with as a direct result of the Appalachian raid the Federal Bureau of Narcotics was instructed to target Vito Genovese in their fight against drugs Oh what about the government's charge you're the right man you're the number-one man of this narcotics that dragged off and fetch me ridiculous you know that and have you ever known anyone in the narcotics racket if you don't know what I'm gonna do on April the 17th 1959 the man who had gotten away with murder for so long was finally nailed in Manhattan federal court Don Vito Genovese was fined $20,000 and sentenced to 15 years in prison for masterminding an international narcotics syndicate that smuggled heroin and cocaine into the United States never underestimate the Menace that vito genovese left with his dealing with his departure it was he who was so instrumental one of the key players and bringing in the scourge of heroin narcotics into America without him it might never have occurred he opened up these opportunities that the Mafia would use widespread distribution into the inner cities of America the biggest cities New York Chicago but the first time you had the mass appeal of a narcotics contagion that enveloped the country and one person who has to ban some of that responsibility is don vito genovese [Music] vito genovese continued to rule his organization unchallenged from his prison cell he died there on February the 14th 1969 of a heart attack [Music] his legacy was that he left behind the most powerful mafia organization in America that bears his name to this day the Vito Genovese family continues to make millions from its criminal activities but he left another more damaging legacy to the mob Genovese had exposed the Mafia to the FBI the Apple aking disaster would signal the beginning of their crackdown on organized crime in America [Music] [Music] Oh [Music]

Info

Channel: Marko okraM

Views: 2,057,772

Rating: 4.3882422 out of 5

Keywords: mafia, mob, Sicilian Mafia (Film Subject), vito, genovese, Godfather, mobster

Id: ascQjL9oSpI

Channel Id: undefined

Length: 100min 10sec (6010 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 15 2013

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