Hey Wiretappers, don’t forget t but me a cup of coffee on your venmo app. in this episode of our ongoing examination of the new England crime families, Camilius Robinson and I take a look at the far western Massachusetts city of Springfield. In the earliest days, this city was organized by members of New York’s Genovese family. The first known boss was “Big Nose Sam” Cufari. He was born around the turn of the 19th Century in Bianco, Reggio di Calabria. Historically this was the home base for the...
Oct 28, 2019
Hey Wiretappers, don’t forget to buy us a shot and a beer on your Venmo app. Just hit up ganglandwire to help with the podcast expenses. Today my regular contributor Camilius Robinson provides us with more stories from Raymond L.S. Patriarca and his new England Crime family known as the “Office.” Wild Guy William Grasso began his mob career in New Haven CT as an associate of Columbo family under a Capo named Ralph “Whitey” Tropiano who was a bad guy in his own right who once killed his entire cr...
Oct 21, 2019
Don’t forget to hit me up on Vemno at ganglandwire and buy me a cup of coffee to help with expenses. This is a republished story from November 2018 to finish out our month on the New England Organized Crime scene. Boston Globe Reporter Emily Sweeney has covered it all as a reporter and blogger. In her spare time, she has written two books on the history of organized crime in the Boston area. Emily covers local news and writes the “Blotter Tales” column for the Globe. A native of the area, she wa...
Oct 16, 2019
Wiretappers, don’t forget to hit me up on Venmo. In this second of a two-episode series with retired East Providence RI Police Captain Joe Broadmeadow, we discuss his second book about members of Raymond L.S. Patriarca’s crime family. In Broadmeadow’s book, Unmade: Honor, Loyalty, Redemption he tells about the unusual crime career of Bobby Walason. Bobby Walason’s father threw him out of the house and he was left to fend for himself on the mean streets of Providence RI at age 12. Walason learned...
Oct 14, 2019
Wiretappers, don’t forget to hit me up on your Venmo app. In this week’s episode, I interview retired East Providence (RI) Police Captain Joe Broadmeadow. He is a skilled and prolific true crime author who has written several non-fiction books and articles on members of the New England Crime Family, headed by the infamous Raymond L.S. Patriarca. In this episode, we discuss his book Choices: The Jerry Tillinghast Story. Joe met Jerry Tillinghast after he served a very long murder sentence. He was...
Oct 07, 2019
Welcome Wiretappers, don’t forget to hit me up on Venmo and buy us a shot and a beer. In this episode host Gary Jenkins and his main contributor Camulius Robinson take a look at Raymond L.S. Patriarca and New England Crime Family or the “Office” and their relationships with New York’s Genevose and Gambino families in connection with the pornography business. The office is concentrated in Providence, RI, and Boston, MA. The Patriarca family had interests in the Desert Inn in Las Vegas, as well as...
Sep 30, 2019
Don’t forget to buy me a shot and a beer on my @ganglandwire Venmo app. This week I am joined by Larry Henry, the Mob in Popular Culture blogger for the Las Vegas Mob Museum. He and I discuss “Handsome Johnny” Roselli who was an influential mobster for the Chicago Outfit who helped that organization control Hollywood and the Las Vegas Strip. Roselli was born in Brooklyn and traveled around the country as a young man. He made some connections ion Los Angeles and ended up working in a bootlegging ...
Sep 16, 2019
Carmine Galante was born Camillo Galente on February 21, 1910, in East Harlem, New York City. Like many La Cosa Nostra mobsters his parents, Vincenzo “James” Galante and Vincenza Russo, had emigrated to New York City in 1906 from Castellammare del Golfo, Sicily. His father had worked as a fisherman. The Galante family had the three brothers Camillo, Samuel, Peter Galante, and two sisters, Josephine and Angelina Galante. Camillo would get his name changed to Carmine Galente. He married Helen Maru...
Sep 09, 2019
In the 1960s, the Chicago Outfit owned practically all the local government officials and a lot of cops. In this podcast we tell about a failed bribery attempt. An incorruptible Cook County Deputy named Donald Shaw refused this bribery attempt, even though an older and higher ranking officer named Dutch Bergbrieter encouraged him to meet with “Joey Doves” Aiuppa and to take the offered bribe. It seems that Officer Shaw had raided a tavern for illegal gambling and when the proprietor offered a br...
Aug 26, 2019
First of all Wiretappers, don’t forget to buy me a cup of coffee on Venmo at ganglandwire. Today we must thank our frequent guest host and mafia researcher screenwriter Camulius “Cam” Robinson. In this episode Cam goes deep into the Chicago Outfit’s influence over the Northwest Indiana organized crime rackets. In the Indian state line city of Chicago Heights, IL over 50% of the population was Italian while Indiana did not have the large Italian population. Despite its rural image Indiana organiz...
Aug 19, 2019
Don’t forget to buy me a cup of coffee on your venmo app at ganglandwire. In this show we talk with our British friend, David Breakspear. He spent a large part of his life “under care” as they say in Great Britain. This means he was incarcerated because of life on the wrong side of the law. In this episode former cop and host, Gary Jenkins talks with a reformed man, writer, mob historian, and criminal justice reform activist David Breakspear about their respective experiences with cops and crook...
Aug 12, 2019
This is a possible title for my upcoming documentary about the Kansas City mob war of the 1970s. This is the story of the ruling Civella brothers, Nick and Cork Civella and the upstart young Turks, Nick Spero and his brothers, Mike, Joe and Carl Spero. A quick overview if you don’t remember the multi-episode podcast I did on this conflict. Basically it is the generation gap played out in a mob war. The old school Nick and his brother Cork Civella were born in the early 1900s and the young Turk S...
Aug 08, 2019
John “Pudgy” Matassa, Jr is reportedly connected to the Outfit’s Northside/Rush Street crew. He is the son of retired Chicago Police officer. Northside/Rush Street crew history Covered Rush Street, which was the entertainment district of Chicago, and the rest of the Northside of Chicago, extorting porn shops (Red Wemette), night clubs, bars, as well as traditional loan-sharking, and gambling. Several members have held leadership positions in the powerful LIUNA (Laborors International Union of No...
Aug 05, 2019
This is a short bonus episode containing the opinion of a Wiretapper who is a member of the Chicago Laborers’ District Council LiUNA. This is a real deal strong Chicago union who looks out for 20,000 members. Give this a listen and then go onto my next episode in which myself and Cam Robinson examine the government’s case and the Outfit history of the participants. I was once a member of the United Automotive Workers Local 249 and I understand the benefits and need for a strong labor union. Ben ...
Aug 05, 2019
Louis “Lepke” Buchalter was a 1930s New York City racketeer. Authorities believed Albert Anastasia appointed him to run his Murder, Inc., enforcement squad. Crime buster Thomas Dewey will set his sights in Lepke as an example of Mob violence and will eventually prosecute him for murder and obtain a death sentence. Eventually, Lepke will appeal to the governor for a commutation from his execution and the person who denies that appeal is Thomas Dewey. A New York City jury sentenced Louis Buchalter...
Jun 24, 2019
Holleeder challenges the Hells Angels In Part 2, David Amoruso continues the story of Dutch master criminal Willem Holleeder and how he became the leader of a major Dutch motorcycle gang called the No Surrender. and eventually challenged the American based Hells Angels. It will be during this time he starts extorting money from a real estate named Willem Endstra. Holleeder and Willem Endstra launder dirty money Along the way, we learn that Willem Holleeder becomes an extortionist of wealthy Euro...
Jun 17, 2019
Willem Holleeder In this story about Willem Holleeder, I interview a Netherlands based crime writer David Amaruso about the John Gotti of the Netherlands. He was a young guy from the middle class with all the advantages of a nice family until his father’s alcoholism caused the Heineken Brewery to fire him. Holleeder gets back at the Heineken company Willem Holleeder burst into the European public’s imagination for his audacious kidnapping of Heineken beer baron, Freddy Heineken. Anthony Hopkins ...
Jun 10, 2019
Scarpelli made several attempts to “go legitimate,” first by investing several thousand into a jewelry boutique, and when that failed, he worked at a shipping company owned by his brother. He ultimately wanted to own an auto salvage yard, but as a felon, licensing would have been difficult to obtain in Illinois. To make ends meet, he had a partnership with a small-time, unsuccessful bookie, and had his Outfit salary. Scarpelli’s first arrest was in 1960 for robbery and served three prison terms ...
May 27, 2019
Don’t forget to buy me a coffee on Venmo at ganglandwire. This week, Chicago writer and Outfit historian, Camillius “Cam” Robinson and I talk about Butch Petrocelli and the Wild Bunch. As a special bonus in the sho0w notes, Cam has written a short piece with additional facts and stories about Butch and this feared hit team of young Turks in the Outfit. I had a great time talking with Gary on Gangland Wire. I thought it might be helpful to include a bit more information on our buddy Butch as a co...
May 20, 2019
In this special bonus episode, I thank our generous contributors with an extra episode in which our most faithful fan, Chicago resident and mob historian Ben Ellickson does a dramatic read of an in-depth article about the upper echelon of the Chicago Outfit published on August 18, 1963, and written by one of their best mob reporters, Thomas Powers. I thank Ben for his never-ending support with his time, talent and treasure. A little background on why Mr. Powers may have believed that Sam Giancan...
Apr 27, 2019
How did Roy DeMeo get into a Life of Crime Roy Albert DeMeo was born into the Mafia neighborhood of Bath Beach Brooklyn. As a teenager, he starts loansharking while enrolled in James Madison High School. It would be during this time he is noticed by a Gambino crime family soldier named Nino Gaggi who takes him under his wing. Growing up in this atmosphere young Roy DeMeo, not unlike Henry Hill, notices that the men who have the money as represented by cash, cars, jewelry, and neighbor respect ar...
Apr 22, 2019
As Anthony Casso progressed in his mob career, he became more suspicious and violent. One of the many interesting stories about Gaspipe is his interactions with the Russian Mafia of Brighton Beach. Gaspipe Casso was a very prolific thief during his life. He was not choosy who he worked with as long he could make money. He developed a close alliance with a Ukrainian mob boss named Marat Balagula. This guy had multi-billion dollar gasoline tax avoidance scams going on in and around Brighton Beach....
Apr 15, 2019
Gaspipe Casso – the early years Anthony “Gaspipe” Casso was born May 21, 1940. Before his career ended with the U. S. Marshal’s office and Witness Security, mob bosses would promote him to the formal position of Underboss of the Lucchese crime family. Gaspipe Casso will gain the reputation of being a “homicidal maniac.” Anthony Casso was the youngest of the three children born to Michael and Margaret Casso. Casso’s grandparents had emigrated from Campania, Italy, (the Naples area, not Sicily). M...
Apr 08, 2019
In part 2 of this story of fear and horror on Kansas City streets. Gary and newspaper reporter Ian Cummings examines how Bob Gross once escaped any penalty because a rural deputy sheriff thought he could alter evidence to make a stronger case. Gary and Ian tell how a team of Kansas City police detectives finally brought Bob Gross to justice using modern technology. Don’t forget to listen to Aaron on the Big Dumb Fun Show. To go to the store or make a donation click here To rent Gangland Wire, th...
Mar 25, 2019
Authorities could have predicted that a teenager named Robert “Bob” Gross might end up a suspect in sex crimes. They just did not know how far he would take his obsession. As with many sex offenders, he became enamored neighbor girl’s underwear drawer. He liked to creep around and window peep. To some, this may seem like normal boyhood sexual curiosity, but these behaviors often end up as adult obsessions that many men take to the next level of kidnapping, rape, and murder. This is the story of ...
Mar 18, 2019
A few days after D-Day in June of 1944, the Prime Minister of the New York Underworld, Frank Costello took a short cab ride. When he exited the cab, he left behind two envelopes containing $27,200.00 in hundreds and fifties. Probably gambling receipts because he was known as the slot machine king of New York City. The honest cabbie was named Edward Waters. He found the envelope and turned it into the NY police. After the story hit the papers, Costello made a claim alleging this was his money and...
Mar 11, 2019
As you know, this podcast runs on donations and purchases of my books, movie and the Kansas City Mob Tour app. I have over 200 free episodes out there with interviews of ex-mobsters, cops and federal agents, all mostly about the mob across the United States. We did a first-person interview with a parachuting skyjacker, a prison interview with the bank robbing Boonie Hat bandit and interviews with the investigators of serial killers. I thank Ben Ellickson, Mark Ryan, Berry Parks, Rich Sullivan an...
Feb 20, 2019
In this episode, we taped an interview with Jimmy Fratianno expert George Custer at the MobWorld Summit in our Las Vegas hotel room. We learn that Jimmy the Weasel started as a Cleveland mobster, then passed through the Chicago outfit and ended up in southern California by the 1950s. He made his bones by killing two Kansas City mobsters in Los Angeles. this murder was made famous in the popular Hollywood film, Kansas City Confidential as the Killing of the Two Tonys. Fratianno had a long career ...
Feb 18, 2019
In 1954, the Chicago Outfit found it lucrative to hijack trucks filled with cartons of cigarettes. They had dozens of corner stores who did not question the history of a case of Lucky Strikes if the price was right. In 1954, an alert tobacco distributor named Alfred Koenecke noticed a truck was following his delivery trucks. He called the Chicago PD and they assigned Det. Bernard Kennedy and Det. Geroge Hanennecke. Mr. Koenecke called the detectives and told them the suspicious truck was marked ...
Feb 14, 2019
In this episode, we interview retired Undercover Detective Reyne Reyes. She worked in the most dangerous job of all the Street Narcotics Units before she arrived to work for your host in the Intelligence Unit and then later in the Major Case Narcotics Unit. One of the fun stories she shares is about the time we sent her into a bar owned by a mob bookie. Jackie Dale Norris was soon attracted to Detective Reyes and tried to hire her to work in his massage parlor. He offered many times to share his...
Feb 11, 2019
