- 22/06/2025
Documentary, National Geographic Inside the Mafia: What Mafia
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00Upstate New York, November 1957.
00:05In the sleepy town of Appalachian, an extraordinary meeting was taking place.
00:11Gathered in the garden of one of the town's wealthiest residents,
00:14a gang of sharp-dressed businessmen feasted on several hundred pounds of steak.
00:20This unusual group attracted attention, and the local cops looked on astonished.
00:25What they didn't know was that they were witnessing a summit meeting of the entire leadership of the American Mafia.
00:36In fact, until that moment, many denied the Mafia even existed.
00:43Sure, there was crime, but organized crime, a criminal gang with secret initiation rights
00:49and codes enforced by sentence of death, seemed like something out of the movies.
00:55Across the Atlantic and Sicily, things were much the same.
01:00Here, in the birthplace of the Mafia, its influence reached into every corner of life.
01:06Yet its very existence was often denied.
01:09Secrecy and internal discipline gave the Mafia its power.
01:14And this power was about to go global.
01:171957 marked the moment the American and Sicilian mafias became international,
01:26forming a billion-dollar crime corporation.
01:30It was a turning point in another way, too.
01:33It signaled the start of a war against organized crime that would last almost half a century.
01:39A war that forced both the U.S. and Italy, finally, to confront the terrifying criminal conspiracy in their midst.
01:48The United States in the mid-1950s.
02:14The good times were here.
02:17The country had emerged from depression and world war with a booming economy.
02:21For many ordinary men and women, the American dream had become reality.
02:25But something else was booming, too.
02:35The Mafia.
02:39For those growing up in a family associated with the mob,
02:42it was as if the outside world barely existed,
02:45apart from being a source of easy money.
02:48The Mafia is organized in groups called families.
02:56The head of the family is known as the boss, or the godfather.
03:00And the longest-serving New York boss of all time was Joe Bonanno, known as Joe Bananas.
03:06He ran the Bonanno family from the early 1930s until the mid-1960s.
03:11Bonanno's power was founded on the influence he wielded over his community in New York.
03:19His son, Bill, saw firsthand how his father operated,
03:23and himself became a leading gangster with the Bonanno family.
03:27My father would, on Tuesdays and Thursdays,
03:30would go into this hall and sit in an office in the back,
03:34and various people from the neighborhood would come in and ask favors.
03:41Somebody had a sick child, and she couldn't pay the doctor.
03:46And my father would arrange for that.
03:48Somebody else had a husband who was cheating on her,
03:53and she wanted to know what to do.
03:55He would take care of that.
03:57That happened twice a week.
03:59So when that happens, you begin to form the idea
04:03that when you have a problem, you know where to go.
04:13This is home movie footage, shot in Brooklyn in 1957.
04:18It looks like any ordinary American family enjoying the new prosperity.
04:23But looks can be deceiving.
04:25Dominic Montilio was born into a mob family in New York.
04:30Some of his relatives were senior mobsters in the Gambino crime family,
04:34another of America's leading mafia families.
04:39Montilio was aware from an early age
04:41how his relatives were unlike others in the neighborhood.
04:45I grew up in a very traditional mob family,
04:49and it was a very different kind of life than my other friends had.
04:54You know, I noticed that from the beginning,
04:57because there was times when, well, the FBI would break down the door,
05:02because, I mean, we lived in the same house with my uncle,
05:05and he was very connected.
05:11Montilio's uncle was an up-and-coming gangster called Nino Gadgi.
05:15One day when he was 11, Dominic ran home,
05:18bursting to tell his uncle Nino
05:20that he had been elected class president at school.
05:23And I came home all excited because I had the button, you know,
05:27it said president on it.
05:28And he said, oh, great.
05:29He says, what does the class president do?
05:33So I said, you know, teacher goes out of the room,
05:35and you watch the class.
05:37If anybody does anything wrong, you write their name on the board.
05:40And he looked at me, and he says,
05:41well, you're telling me you're a rat, you're a stool pigeon.
05:43So I said, you know, I mean, 10 years old, 11 years old,
05:48what are you going to say?
05:49And he said, well, tomorrow you've got to go back
05:51and give that button back to the teacher
05:53and tell her you can't be the class president.
05:58Bill Bonanno and Dominic Montilio
06:00both grew up in a world closed to the outside.
06:03The American mafia called itself Cosa Nostra, our thing.
06:09But this was a world imported to America
06:11from several thousand miles away.
06:21This is where the mafia came from, Sicily,
06:24the largest island in the Mediterranean
06:26with a population of five million,
06:29less than two miles from the Italian mainland.
06:33Like Montilio,
06:35Leolucco Orlando was born in 1947.
06:38In Palermo, Sicily's biggest city,
06:41unlike Montilio,
06:42he would grow up to fight the mafia, not join it.
06:46Sicily is a land of contradictions.
06:48Palermo is the capital of Sicily,
06:51is the capital of the mafia too.
06:53It's the capital of the history,
06:55is the capital of the shame of this land.
07:00In the Sicilian dialect,
07:02mafioso once meant bold or beautiful.
07:05From the 1860s,
07:07it became the name associated with the island's criminal element,
07:10who were often organized into families
07:12of men related by blood or marriage.
07:15But their existence was steeped in secrecy.
07:18Even discussing the mafia was taboo,
07:21as Orlando found one day at school.
07:24When I was 14 years old,
07:2715 years old,
07:29I organized with other students,
07:31a seminar about the mafia and against the mafia.
07:33The director,
07:35the Jesuit director of the school,
07:37called my parents
07:38and said,
07:39it's a scandal.
07:40Why Lucchetto is speaking about the mafia?
07:44We have nothing to do with the mafia,
07:46therefore we are not speaking about the mafia.
07:48Gray area.
07:49Not seeing,
07:51not speaking,
07:52not hearing.
07:52It was Sicily when I was a younger student.
07:59Joe Bonanno grew up in this world.
08:02He was a native Sicilian,
08:04born here in the pretty seaside town
08:06of Castellamare del Golfo in 1905.
08:09He only moved to America in the 1920s.
08:12Sicily has a long history
08:17of mistrust of authority.
08:21There's an old saying back there
08:22that to know a man,
08:24you have to know his father
08:25and his father before him
08:27and his father before him.
08:28And once that happens,
08:30there is very little room for betrayal.
08:36Much of the power of the mafia
08:37derived from its ruthless discipline.
08:40Chief among these values
08:42was omerta,
08:44the vow of silence.
08:47In Sicily,
08:49all mafiosi had to take a sacred blood oath
08:52that they would never betray
08:53the organization to the authorities
08:55and that they would always carry out
08:57the orders of their mob bosses.
08:59The novice was sworn in
09:01through a quasi-religious ceremony
09:03and became a so-called man of honor.
09:06The American mafia followed exactly the same
09:11traditional initiation ceremony.
09:14You're brought into a room
09:15and you're given the image of a saint.
09:18Prick your finger,
09:20enough to draw a drop or two of blood,
09:23put it on the image of the saint,
09:25put the saint in your hand
09:26and they light it.
09:28And you take an oath
09:30and it simply says
09:31that you hope to burn
09:33as this saint is burning
09:35if you betray your brothers.
09:39To break this oath
09:40would mean death.
09:42Our culture taught us
09:44to act like men.
09:47And acting like men
09:48meant keeping your mouth shut.
09:50But for Bonanno
09:53and his fellow gangsters,
09:55Homerta was more
09:57than just a vow of silence.
10:00Homerta comes from being
10:02from the root manly
10:04and it simply means
10:06to act like a man.
10:08And a man doesn't get
10:10somebody else in the trouble.
10:13Therefore, he doesn't say,
10:15John did it.
10:17Who hit you in the face?
10:19John hit me in the face.
10:20A man will see to it
10:22that John gets hit in the face.
10:25The values imported
10:26by Sicilian mafiosi
10:27to the United States
10:29were violent, secretive
10:31and mistrustful of outsiders.
10:34In America,
10:36gangsters would take
10:36these traditional values
10:38and add go-getting
10:39entrepreneurial spirit
10:41to create a whole new kind
10:43of criminal organization.
10:50early in the 20th century,
10:52a young man was growing up
10:54in Sicily
10:55who would change
10:56the face of crime.
11:00Salvatore Lucania,
11:01born in 1897,
11:03would become infamous
11:04as Charlie Lucky Luciano,
11:06the father
11:08of the modern American mafia.
11:09his hometown of La Cara Fridi
11:15was built on the hard
11:17and dangerous work
11:18of sulfur mining.
11:21Sulfur mines
11:22were primitive places
11:23where temperatures
11:24were so high
11:25men would work naked.
11:27yet these deprived laborers
11:32still had to pay the mafia
11:33for the right to work.
11:38They were not alone.
11:40The owner of the mine
11:41would have paid up too.
11:43The mafia squeezed money
11:45from all walks
11:46of Sicilian life.
11:51When he was ten,
11:53Luciano was one of hundreds
11:54of thousands of Sicilians
11:55who left the poverty
11:57of the islands behind
11:58and set sail
11:59for a new life
12:00in America.
12:02He soon drifted
12:03into crime.
12:05As a teenager,
12:06Luciano joined
12:07the notorious
12:08Five Points Gang,
12:10which also boasted
12:11Al Capone
12:12as a member.
12:15It was the age
12:16of prohibition.
12:17For 13 years,
12:18it was illegal
12:19to make or sell
12:20alcohol
12:21in the United States.
12:23Luciano
12:23and other bootleggers
12:24made millions
12:26supplying Americans
12:27with as much boos
12:28as they wanted.
12:33Salvatore Lucania
12:34started calling himself
12:36Charles Luciano.
12:38He gained the nickname
12:39Lucky
12:39and the scars
12:40on his neck
12:41when he miraculously
12:42survived a knife attack
12:44and beating.
12:46He presided
12:47over his criminal kingdom
12:48from a suite
12:49in New York's
12:50luxurious
12:51Waldorf Hotel.
12:55Here,
12:56he called himself
12:57Mr. Charles Ross.
12:59And he made it
13:00to the very top
13:01in 1932
13:02with the killing
13:03of Salvatore Mananzano,
13:05then the most powerful
13:07boss in America.
13:10But the constant battles
13:11were getting
13:12in the way
13:13of business.
13:14If there were
13:16three Italian mobsters
13:18in the Italian
13:19neighborhood,
13:20it was an almost
13:21certain guarantee
13:21that at least
13:22two of them
13:22were going to try
13:23to kill the third.
13:26And the third
13:26was plotting
13:27against the other two.
13:28So bodies
13:29would wind up
13:30in the streets.
13:31To what purpose?
13:33Luciano wanted
13:34the mafia families
13:35to bury their differences,
13:37not each other.
13:38We can't make money
13:40with guns in our hand
13:41was his expression,
13:43the expression
13:43that I heard
13:44over and over again.
13:45We can't make money
13:46with guns in our hand.
13:53His solution
13:54was to set up
13:55a body called
13:56a commission,
13:57a mafia board
13:58of directors
13:59made up of the bosses
14:00of the five
14:01New York families
14:02plus those of
14:03Chicago and Buffalo.
14:04Any boss
14:08with a grievance
14:08against another family
14:09could bring it
14:11to the commission.
14:14But for the plan
14:15to succeed,
14:16Luciano had to win
14:17the support
14:18of the other families,
14:19including Joe Bonanno,
14:21who had just taken over
14:22for Maranzano,
14:24the man who's killing
14:25Luciano had set up.
14:28You've got to remember
14:29Luciano was
14:30an Americanized guy,
14:31so he talked that way.
14:32My dad always told me
14:33that he was
14:34Luciano talked
14:35just like
14:37those Americans.
14:39And he says,
14:41those guys are dead.
14:42I have no quarrel
14:43with you,
14:44and I know you don't
14:44have a quarrel
14:45with me.
14:47Therefore,
14:48the past is the past.
14:49Let's go on.
14:51Joe Bonanno
14:52backed Luciano's plan
14:53and joined him
14:54on the first commission
14:55alongside Al Capone.
14:58Luciano's conception
14:59was that he would
15:01meld Sicilian
15:02mafia mores
15:04which formed a very
15:06tight organization
15:07with American business methods.
15:10That's basically
15:10what he came up with,
15:12a kind of amalgam
15:14that we came to know
15:15as American mafia
15:17organized crime.
15:18with peace,
15:23the mob could concentrate
15:25on what it knew best,
15:26making millions of dollars
15:28from its control
15:29of illegal gambling,
15:30prostitution,
15:31and extortion.
15:33Small wonder
15:34life as a mobster
15:35seemed so attractive
15:36to many grown up
15:38in post-war America.
15:39the teenage Henry Hill
15:43watched awestruck
15:44from the window
15:45of his Brooklyn home
15:47at Mafiosi
15:48gathered on the street.
15:49you know,
15:50and you see those
15:51Cadillacs
15:52and, you know,
15:53and guys from suits,
15:55big black suits
15:55and diamond rings
15:56like size of a quarter,
15:57you know,
15:58and beautiful woman.
16:00What the f*** is this,
16:01you know?
16:02So I walked over to that job
16:03washing cars,
16:05sweeping them out,
16:05you know,
16:06just to hang out there
16:07and that's how I,
16:08you know,
16:08started hanging out
16:09over there.
16:10It was exciting,
16:11you know?
16:13Hill would become
16:14a mobster
16:14with the Lucchese family.
16:19Another future gangster,
16:20Frank Ullotta,
16:22was also in awe
16:23of the mobsters
16:23he saw
16:24as he was growing up
16:25in Chicago.
16:26Well, actually,
16:27I grew up
16:28into that world,
16:30the neighborhood
16:31I came from.
16:34There were all
16:35Alfred guys,
16:36crooks,
16:37murderers,
16:38and I sort of
16:39looked up to them
16:39and idolized them.
16:41I used to shine
16:42their shoes.
16:43They'd give me,
16:44instead of a nickel,
16:45they'd give me
16:45a dollar.
16:47So, you know,
16:48I seen a lot of money
16:49then as a kid
16:50and they impressed me.
16:52So in my mind,
16:53I always wanted
16:53to be something
16:54like that.
16:57The ruthless discipline
16:59the commission
16:59brought to the world
17:00of crime
17:01meant the power
17:02of the mob
17:03grew unchecked.
17:05In New York,
17:06places like
17:07the waterfront
17:07became synonymous
17:08with mafia control.
17:10It used its control
17:11of the unions
17:12and fishing companies
17:13to make millions
17:14a year.
17:16It did the same
17:16across the city
17:17in industries
17:18such as construction
17:19in which the
17:20Bonanno family
17:21was involved.
17:23You'd construct
17:24a building
17:25and you'd put in
17:27even just a
17:27two or three cent
17:28increase on the value
17:31of the cement
17:32that we used
17:32in that building
17:33which could turn
17:34into millions
17:34thousands of dollars.
17:40Every yard of concrete
17:41that got poured
17:42in the city
17:43there could be
17:45no family
17:45the Genovese family
17:46everybody got a piece
17:47of that yard of concrete
17:49just through the unions.
17:50It wasn't just
17:57one little thing
17:58but you multiply
17:59this by
17:59hundreds and hundreds
18:01and thousands
18:02and thousands
18:03of activities
18:03that were going on
18:04throughout the country
18:05and you got
18:08a force
18:09to be reckoned with.
18:11In New York
18:12the mafia
18:13seemed to have
18:14its finger
18:14in every pie.
18:17We were in the city
18:17basically
18:18and we could
18:19stop a building
18:20from going up
18:21or a movie
18:23being made
18:24or a show
18:25on Broadway
18:25you know
18:26I mean
18:26you didn't do
18:28what the boss
18:30wanted you to do
18:31you were either dead
18:31or you were out
18:33of business
18:33it wasn't Freddie.
18:38For the most part
18:39the authorities
18:40denied the existence
18:41of a national
18:42criminal organization.
18:45One reason was
18:46that the mafia
18:47was busy
18:48buying protection
18:49for itself.
18:52Bill Bonanno
18:52says he would
18:53meet corrupt
18:54police officers
18:54in a restaurant
18:55to give them
18:56their bribes.
18:58I had dinner
18:59at a little restaurant
19:01and I was there
19:02with two other friends
19:03and we were
19:04sitting around
19:05and they said
19:06do you have
19:06a look of
19:07nostalgia
19:08on your face
19:08what's your
19:09what's up?
19:11I said
19:11you know
19:11I used to come here
19:13in the late 40s
19:14and the early 50s
19:15and I turned around
19:16and I said
19:16I used to sit
19:16in that corner
19:17back there
19:18and I used to
19:19meet with a
19:20captain
19:21and two lieutenants
19:22from law enforcement
19:23and one of them
19:24and said
19:25what were you
19:26doing here?
19:27I said
19:27we were giving
19:28them their envelopes
19:29envelopes for what?
19:31To look the other way
19:33while we had
19:34the gambling
19:34we had
19:36the horse racing
19:37the book making
19:38and the numbers.
19:41The commission
19:42was presiding
19:43over a boom time.
19:45As he rose
19:46through the ranks
19:46of the mob
19:47Bill Bonanno
19:48attended several meetings
19:49of the commission
19:50with his father
19:51mafia boss
19:52Joe Bonanno
19:52the commission
19:54boasted
19:54it was so powerful
19:56that it could
19:56even influence
19:57government.
19:59I can remember
19:59a time
20:00and I participated
20:03in some of those
20:04meetings
20:04and the decisions
20:06that had
20:07to be made
20:08were
20:09you're going
20:10to be the next
20:11federal judge
20:11you're going
20:12to be the next
20:13governor
20:13you're going
20:14to be the next
20:15senator
20:15you're going
20:16to be the next
20:17House of Representatives
20:18candidate.
20:20The men got up
20:22after those decisions
20:24and lo and behold
20:26it happened.
20:29The mafia
20:30had a power
20:31that was unacknowledged
20:32and unchallenged
20:33until the temptation
20:35to make even more money
20:37proved impossible
20:38to resist
20:38and finally forced
20:40the US government
20:41to act.
20:48In the United States
20:52and Italy
20:52in the 1950s
20:54the mafia
20:55controlled
20:55many aspects
20:56of life
20:57yet the governments
20:58in both countries
20:59barely acknowledged
21:00the existence
21:01of organized crime.
21:04Law enforcement
21:04had a different enemy.
21:07The Cold War
21:08was at its height.
21:09The main target
21:10of the FBI
21:11were American communists
21:12not Italian-American
21:14gangsters.
21:15The communist bloc
21:19has woven
21:19a vast network
21:20of espionage
21:21throughout the free world.
21:23The communist line
21:24is uniform
21:25and deadly.
21:27Destroy
21:28America.
21:34After World War II
21:35in the FBI's
21:37New York office
21:37there were 400 agents
21:39chasing communists.
21:41There were just five
21:42dealing with
21:43organized crime.
21:45The story was similar
21:48at the Department
21:48of Justice
21:49where William Hundley
21:50worked.
21:52When I took over
21:53the organized crime
21:54section
21:55in the Justice
21:58Department
21:59in H7
22:00there were basically
22:00maybe seven
22:03or eight lawyers
22:04there who were
22:05basically clipping
22:06newspapers.
22:08They weren't doing
22:08anything either.
22:10The director
22:11of the FBI
22:11was J. Edgar Hoover.
22:14He had been
22:14on its head
22:14for over 30 years.
22:17Hoover was one
22:18of the most powerful
22:19men in Washington
22:19eventually serving
22:21under eight presidents.
22:23In law enforcement
22:24what Hoover said
22:26went.
22:27And to Hoover
22:28America's priority
22:29was the red menace.
22:34But from the late 1950s
22:36a succession of events
22:37would change all that
22:39and finally forcing the
22:40authorities and the nation
22:42to acknowledge the existence
22:44of the Mafia.
22:45Once again
22:47it all started in Sicily
22:49and it was a story
22:51in which Mafia godfather
22:52Joe Bonanno
22:53played a central role.
22:57In late 1957
22:59Bonanno took a trip back
23:01to his native Sicily.
23:03He had been born here
23:04in the tiny coastal town
23:06of Castellamare del Golfo
23:07before emigrating
23:09to the U.S.
23:09as a youngster.
23:11But Bonanno's trip
23:12was no sentimental journey.
23:15The Mafia Don
23:16was on business.
23:19Joe Bonanno
23:20had maintained
23:21close links
23:21with his family
23:22and criminal associates
23:24in the old country.
23:25He was approached
23:26by some old acquaintances
23:28for advice
23:29on a pressing problem.
23:30My dad told me
23:33that one of the leaders
23:34of the Palermo Mafia
23:36came to him
23:37and said that
23:37there's a few people
23:39that they would like
23:40to talk to him
23:41about certain problems
23:42that they're having
23:43here in Sicily.
23:46A meeting took place
23:47in this building
23:48the Grand Hotel de Pau
23:50in Palermo
23:50one of the top hotels
23:52in the Sicilian capital.
23:57Even to this day
23:58details of who attended
24:00and what was discussed
24:01remained shrouded
24:02in mystery.
24:04Bonanno may not have been
24:05the only American present.
24:10Charles Lucky Luciano
24:12was now living in Italy
24:13having been deported
24:14from the U.S.
24:15after the war.
24:17Today
24:17the Italian authorities
24:19believe
24:20that he was also present
24:21at the Hotel de Pau.
24:26And from 12 to 16 October
24:28in 1957
24:29in Palermo
24:34in the Hotel de Palme
24:36there was a summit
24:36of about 30 Mafia bosses.
24:41American Cosa Nostra
24:42and Sicilian Mafia bosses.
24:44The major American families
24:52were represented
24:53Joe Bonanno
24:54Lucky Luciano
24:56who had been in Italy
24:57since 1947
24:58and then there were
24:59the local mafia heads.
25:00and there were
25:12the people
25:13who had been in Italy
25:14and popular
25:15over dinner
25:16the Sicilians
25:17explained why
25:18they wanted a meeting.
25:19This was a business convention
25:21and high on the agenda
25:23was a subject
25:23of drugs
25:24which offered
25:25vast profit
25:25but at a price.
25:27The purpose of the meeting was to pick my father's brains as to how they were going to resolve a problem they were beginning to have among each other over the narcotics trade in Turkey.
25:45The Sicilians faced a dilemma.
25:49Various families within the mafia were at odds as to whether they should or they shouldn't get themselves involved with this.
25:56And the younger element saw nothing wrong in making a profit.
26:02In fact, the American mafia was having the same debate about drugs.
26:07It seems that Joe Bonanno wasn't just offering friendly advice.
26:11He was there to close a deal that would reorganize the global trade in heroin.
26:17According to the FBI, it was this meeting which established the Bonanno family as the main players in the transatlantic heroin trade.
26:27The Sicilians would manufacture and smuggle the drug into the U.S.
26:30The Americans would distribute it and take a cut.
26:33This was the first time the mafias on both sides of the Atlantic had come together on such a scale.
26:41An early example of globalization had run by organized crime.
26:46The foundations were laid for collaboration between Sicilian mafia, which wasn't yet called Cosa Nostra,
26:59and the American Cosa Nostra, which had, as its main objective, heroin trafficking.
27:04Bill Bonanno says the organization of the mafia itself was also on the agenda,
27:13and that his father advised the Sicilians to copy Luciano's recipe for resolving disputes.
27:18It was at that meeting that he suggested that one of the ways that they might resolve their problem
27:27and have a little better handle on the situation is to do what the Americans had done,
27:33and that was to form a commission.
27:37The Sicilians did set up a commission, but it would only meet a few times
27:42and never gain the authority of the American original.
27:45In America, the subject of drugs continued to dominate mafia discussions.
27:54The new organization that Luciano created solved just about every problem you could think of,
28:01except one, narcotics.
28:06In the beginning, Luciano assumed that the organization could keep organized crime out of narcotics altogether.
28:14It simply wasn't worth the trouble.
28:15The difficulty was the money.
28:21And for the mafia, money was always irresistible.
28:25The Americans arranged a summit to ratify the deal with their Sicilian cousins,
28:31a meeting that would provide one of the most infamous moments of their history.
28:41The deal between the Sicilian and American mafia in late 1957
28:45was a turning point for both organizations.
28:49The money offered by the drug business was the key.
28:52Everyone knew that drug dealing was a far bigger dollar earner than other activities like illegal gambling and extortion.
29:00But it also brought with it long prison sentences and mob bosses feared that their men would break the code of silence if they faced decades in prison.
29:12There was friction among the various families.
29:16Some of the younger people, especially those in New York and in Boston and in Chicago thought that this was the great new thing coming.
29:30Speaking strictly about money.
29:32The mafia in Chicago, and it was the outfit, claimed the hardest anti-drugs line.
29:42Frank Alotta was a rising young gangster there.
29:45At the time I was there, there was no drugs allowed to be sold, or you couldn't deal with drugs at all, or else you'd get whacked.
29:53Because we always knew that if you dealt with drugs, it was a dirty business, and it'd be like you're feeding your own kid narcotics.
30:03So it was like taboo.
30:05And if you got involved with it, you're definitely going to get whacked.
30:09The mafia families called a summit in November, 1957, just one month after the meeting with the Sicilians in Palermo.
30:21Joe Bonanno was to be joined at the summit by another godfather, Vito Genovese.
30:27Both men wanted the mob to deal in drugs.
30:31Chief among Genovese's agenda items was narcotics.
30:36He was directly involved in narcotics.
30:38Banana was deeply involved in narcotics.
30:40A lot of the other bosses were on the sly involved in narcotics.
30:45And he argued, look, it's a fact of life anyway.
30:48Who are we kidding?
30:49Let's make it official.
30:51Let's really make money out of this thing.
30:56The summit was held in a small town called Appalachian in upstate New York.
31:00The venue was a large house on a 58-acre estate, owned by Joseph Barbera, a wealthy businessman and mafia associate.
31:10It was chosen because its isolated rural location seemed safe from the prying eyes of the law.
31:16Unfortunately for the mob bosses, they got that 100% wrong.
31:24For over a year, the local state police had been watching the place after they discovered that a house guest was a leading New York mobster, Carmine Galante, Joe Bonanno's underboss.
31:37On the 14th of November, officers were surprised to observe several Cadillacs without a state place.
31:45When the state troopers went to take a closer look, they saw about 100 men enjoying a barbecue, all of them wearing dark suits, fedoras, and shiny shoes.
31:57If you didn't know that it was a mafia summit, and you suddenly would drop from a spaceship to the middle of this thing,
32:05you would think it's just some kind of friendly barbecue among a lot of friends who, oddly enough, seemed to be wearing suits to a barbecue.
32:13But, yeah, each to his own taste.
32:19Suddenly, someone spotted the police.
32:23These are men that if you, like Pavlov's dogs, if you say, it's the cops, there's one instinct.
32:31That's to run.
32:32That's exactly what they did.
32:37Pandemonium broke out.
32:38Some bosses hid.
32:40Some took to their cars.
32:42Others fled into the woods.
32:43It was a farce.
32:51It was probably the mafia's lowest moment.
32:54The idea of all these big-time bosses running through the thickets in their sharkskin suits and their silk ties and their $500 Italian shoes.
33:06It was unbelievable.
33:08Joe Bonanno escaped the chaos, but only because he was late.
33:15They were coming there.
33:16When they got to the bottom of the hill, you could see all the way up the hill, and they could see these police cars and the barricades in front of the street.
33:22So they just kept on driving and went back to New York City.
33:26Around 60 mobsters were detained, identified and questioned, but there was little the authorities could do.
33:34Attending a barbecue was not a crime, and they were not even carrying guns.
33:38While the mobsters went free, they were convicted by the media.
33:42The next day, the gangland conference was headline news across America.
33:48Appalachian had finally provided proof of the existence and scale of the mafia.
33:53J. Edgar Hoover, who was head of the FBI, said there is no such thing as the mafia.
34:00There is no such thing as the national crime organization.
34:03There is no such thing as a leadership group within this organization.
34:07Well, even he had to admit after this meeting that maybe there was something.
34:13The extent of organized crime in the United States is our national disgrace.
34:19The very fact that we have a crime problem reflects an evil of even greater import.
34:28It generated a lot of pressure to get something done.
34:32In my own situation, I mean, that's why I was appointed head of the organized crime section.
34:39Now law enforcement would have to play catch-up to come to terms with organized crime.
34:45One of my biggest complaints was that, you know, we wanted to pool information on these people.
34:52We wanted the investigative agencies to share it.
34:56We wanted to collect it on the mafia leaders and whatnot to make our efforts to prosecute them much more feasible.
35:06Couldn't get it done.
35:07They just wouldn't do it.
35:08First of all, they didn't have anything.
35:11And second of all, they wouldn't share what they didn't have, you know.
35:15The spotlight was now on the mafia.
35:18Before long, they would attract the attention of the president and the American public alike.
35:31In 1960, the United States went to the polls to choose a new president.
35:35It was the most hotly contested election for years.
35:40John Kennedy and his rival, Richard Nixon, were neck and neck in the polls.
35:44The contest was too close to call.
35:46The contest was too close to call.
35:47Both candidates made every effort to get the voters out.
35:51We are aiming our whole campaign toward the unregistered voters, to try to get those citizens who are not registered to vote, who are not even eligible to vote in this election, to get them on the books so that they can vote in November.
36:05But this is a crucial area as far as Senator Kennedy is concerned.
36:10The American mafia had influenced local politics for decades.
36:14Now seasoned gangsters suddenly got community spirit on the national stage.
36:21Chicago gangster Frank Alotta says he was told by his boss to get involved in the election.
36:26It came around and told all those guys to reach out to all the Italian people and Polish people that they had this Irishman, Kennedy, that was running against Nixon.
36:39And we needed to get him in office.
36:42We needed all the votes we could get to get this guy in office.
36:45It seemed the mafia wanted Kennedy in the Oval Office.
36:51What has never been clear is why, despite allegations of links between JFK's father, Joe Kennedy, and organized crime.
37:04Kennedy squeaked by, beating Nixon by just over 100,000 votes across the country.
37:10In Illinois, the Democrats won by just 9,000 votes.
37:17The election may have been a close one.
37:20But I think that there is general agreement by all of our citizens that a supreme national effort will be needed in the years ahead to move this country safely through the 1960s.
37:33If the mafia hoped that a Kennedy administration would be easy on organized crime, the new president turned out to be a major disappointment.
37:43His younger brother, Robert, became attorney general.
37:47He had already proved to be a ferocious opponent of organized crime, from his time as counsel to the Senate Labor Rackets Committee.
37:55His appointment had an immediate impact on the FBI and its director, J. Edgar Hoover.
38:00That's when Hoover started having his agents put in the bugs, the listening devices and whatnot,
38:14because he knew that Kennedy was going to press him very hard on organized crime.
38:20The FBI bugged two main centers of mob activity in the U.S., Chicago and Las Vegas,
38:28where the lucrative gambling rackets were run by the Chicago mob, known as the Outfit.
38:34It was illegal to listen to private conversations, even those of suspected gangsters.
38:40But it went a long way to convincing many in the agency that the mob posed a very real threat.
38:46These devices, of course, were illegal because they involved breaking and entering and whatnot.
38:56But the information that the FBI picked up on those devices, they might not have convinced Hoover,
39:08but they certainly convinced the FBI as an institution that there was a mafia.
39:16Attorney General Robert Kennedy paints a grim picture of the rise of lawlessness under the Cosa Nostra, or Mafia.
39:23This was not what the mob had expected.
39:26Some mafiosi claimed that a deal had been made and broken.
39:30I was amazed that Robert Kennedy went after organized crime so hard,
39:34because it went against everything that Robert Kennedy's father had agreed to
39:43for the help and support of getting Jack elected to the presidency.
39:50The American government was taking a more aggressive line, but they had failed to penetrate the mob.
39:59Part of the mafia's power was based on its code of silence, known as Omerta.
40:03Then the FBI got a break.
40:06It was a story that had its roots in the mafia's continuing indecision as to whether to get involved in the heroin trade.
40:14Joe Valacci was a mobster with the Genovese crime family, a 30-year veteran of organized crime.
40:23Valacci had a, you know, a sixth-grade education.
40:28I think he committed his first crime when he was about six or seven years old,
40:33broke into a grocery store, in and out of jail.
40:35But he had, you know, he had street smarts.
40:40Joe Valacci was a low-scale, knuckle-dragging hood who was never going to be any more than a soldier.
40:48He was never going to make the really big money.
40:53In 1962, he was in Atlanta jail, serving a prison sentence for drug dealing.
40:59He feared that his bosses were going to kill him there,
41:01for officially, the mob was still opposed to drugs.
41:06Valacci acted first,
41:08murdering an inmate he believed had been ordered to kill him.
41:14It was the wrong man.
41:16Whether through fear or remorse,
41:19Valacci broke and decided to turn government witness.
41:22Now, the original idea was that he would become an informant for the Federal Bureau of Narcotics
41:28and tell them about other dope dealers.
41:29That's all the Bureau wanted to know, other dope dealers.
41:32That's their job.
41:33But Robert Kennedy had a brighter idea.
41:37He said, wait a minute, let's talk to him about the Mafia.
41:42It was the first crack in the Mafia's code of silence.
41:47William Hundley was one of the first to hear his revelations.
41:51As soon as we got the story, I mean, we moved him.
41:57We moved him up to Fort Dix, flew him up there in a helicopter.
42:03The brig up there was empty.
42:05And we put him in the brig.
42:09We started interviewing him.
42:11Valacci detailed the structure of the Mafia families,
42:15from his level as a soldier to the very top, the Godfathers.
42:19But this information was never given by him in any criminal trials.
42:24Instead, Robert Kennedy turned to television,
42:26which was covering the sessions of the McClellan Committee.
42:29Robert Kennedy had the brilliant idea, let's put Joe Valacci on show.
42:35Joe Valacci gets for the Senate Committee,
42:36and a national audience is absolutely fascinated.
42:45The nation's underworld gets the unwelcome spotlight of publicity
42:49as the Senate's investigation subcommittee begins new hearings on crime.
42:53Arkansas Senator McClelland is at the helm.
42:57William Hundley was present
42:59as Valacci's electrifying testimony was broadcast across the nation.
43:04He really didn't want to cooperate.
43:07There's no doubt about that.
43:11Quite frankly, though, when he got in front of those
43:14Klieg lights up before the McClellan Committee,
43:19he, you know, the adrenaline started to flow,
43:22and I think he, you know,
43:24in sort of a perverse way that he kind of enjoyed it.
43:28Why did you decide to kill him at that time, at that spot?
43:32Why? Because he's the guy I spotted at that time.
43:36He was the...
43:36In other words, I felt that was my last day,
43:39in plain English, Senator.
43:41I felt that was my last day.
43:44In other words, this was a defense for you?
43:46You thought that if you kill this man,
43:48who you thought was going to kill you anyway,
43:50that this...
43:51I got some satisfaction, Senator.
43:53You got some satisfaction.
43:55Valacci's testimony caused a sensation.
43:57Here, live on TV, was a monster,
44:01giving the first tantalizing glimpse
44:03into the secret world of the mafia,
44:06or, as he called it,
44:07cosa nostra,
44:08Italian for our thing.
44:13Valacci corroborated what the FBI bugs had begun to pick up
44:17and what its director, J. Edgar Hoover,
44:20had reluctantly started to believe.
44:24That a modern American criminal group
44:26used rituals and symbols from Sicily
44:29to maintain internal discipline
44:31and run its multi-million dollar enterprise.
44:38While you were repeating the words,
44:40you were burning the paper.
44:41Right, this is the way I burn
44:43if I expose this organization.
44:46There's always a lot of skepticism about that,
44:49you know, that, I mean,
44:50because nobody had ever come forward
44:52and, you know, said,
44:55how are you getting made and whatnot?
44:56And apparently, you know,
44:58it was exactly the way he said it was.
45:01You know, they decide who's going to get made,
45:03you get together,
45:04you burn this holy picture and whatnot,
45:08and then bingo,
45:09you're a made member of the mafia.
45:12He went on to explain
45:13that you live by the gun and by the knife
45:16and you die by the gun and by the knife.
45:19Who was chosen?
45:20Who became your godfather?
45:23Joe Banana.
45:24Joe Banana?
45:25It happened to be my godfather.
45:26Now, where is he?
45:27Is he on this chart we have here?
45:30Is he at the head of one of the families now?
45:32Yeah, he still is.
45:33He still is?
45:34Yes.
45:34Still alive?
45:35Right.
45:36For the American mafia
45:37and the Bonanno family in particular,
45:40Valachi's TV appearances were devastating.
45:43Valachi's testimony was certainly a blow
45:46to the people in our world.
45:52There's no question about that.
45:54Senator.
45:55Can I say something, Senator?
45:58Yes.
46:00As to what I'm telling you now,
46:03I need to go no further to say nothing else.
46:06This is what I'm telling you,
46:09what I'm exposing to you and the press and everybody.
46:13This is my doom.
46:18Joe Valachi died in prison of cancer in 1971.
46:22He had helped shatter the view that there was no national criminal organization in the United States.
46:33Cosa Nostra could no longer act in secret
46:35at a time when they were moving more and more onto the international stage with their Sicilian cousins.
46:40For both mafias, once broken,
46:44Omertar, the vow of silence,
46:48could never be as strong again.
46:50Oh, I'm êµë¯¼.
46:50Thank you, we love you.
46:58I love you.
46:59I love you.
47:02You
Recommended
59:00
|
Up next
1:22:11
1:22:08
46:58
59:10
3:03
20:55
41:48
44:00
58:31
1:27:59
45:07
44:15
43:37
48:17
48:20
48:20
49:00
58:23
58:41
58:33