Retired Intelligence Detective Gary Jenkins interviews Michael Vecchione about his book; Homicide Is My Business: Luigi the Zip―A Hitman’s Quest for Honor. A retired New York City criminal prosecutor, Michael Vecchione, tells how he met Luigi Ronsisvalle and gives us an intimate look at the life of a professional killer. Luigi told Mr. Vecchione about his journey from Sicily to his arrival in the United States and his first murder for hire to his last. We learn that Luigi the Zip had an ambition...
Jan 16, 2023
Retired Mafia Detective Gary Jenkins tells how Mafia gangsters set up and rob jewelry salesmen. You may not know, but every day in the U.S., thousands of honest, hardworking salesmen load up their sales cases and hit the road to show their samples of gold, silver, or platinum jewelry with diamonds, rubies, emeralds, or other precious stones embedded. Mafia associates gather intelligence constantly on these salesmen. Gary tells about a gang working for the infamous Chicago Police Superintendent W...
Jan 15, 2023
Intelligence detective Gary Jenkins looks closely at the week after Lucky Luciano and Meyer Lansky murdered the last of the old-school Mob guys, Salvatore Marazano. For many years, several books by respected authors repeated a story that as many as 60 old-school Black Handers were murdered across the United States. The accepted theory was that Luciano cleared the decks all over the United States to make space for the new young mafioso and the National Crime Syndicate. Support the Podcast Hit me ...
Jan 11, 2023
Intelligence detective Gary Jenkins interviews Mafia genealogist about the art and science of searching out and documenting the family roots of various mob bosses. Justin Cascio has a great website called Mafia Geneology. Click the link to read some of the many stories Justin has learned and shared on his site. Support the Podcast Hit me up on Venmo for a cup of coffee or a shot and a beer @ganglandwireClick here to “buy me a cup of coffee” To go to the store or make a donation or rent Ballot Th...
Jan 09, 2023
Retired Intelligence Detective Gary Jenkins and Camullis Robinson deconstruct Joe Valachi. What was his criminal background? What kind of crimes did Joe Valachi commit? Who was he connected to? Why did he think he was targeted for murder? Joe Valachi was born in 1904. He was not the sharpest tool in the toolbox. Joe Valachi was uneducated but possessed great native intelligence and good memory for mafia stories. In 1963, he will put that memory to work for the government and gave the American pu...
Jan 02, 2023
Intelligence Detective Gary Jenkins looks closely at the gangs of New Zealand. He finds that most of these organized gangs are formed around motorcyles and other established motorcycle gangs like the Mongols, the Hells Angels, or the Bandidos. As with most organized gangs like this in other parts of the world, they make money from the sale and distribution of narcotics. Support the Podcast Hit me up on Venmo for a cup of coffee or a shot and a beer @ganglandwireClick here to “buy me a cup of cof...
Dec 26, 2022
In Part 2 of this story, retired Intelligence Detective Gary Jenkins continues looking into the drug investigation and conviction of Sammy Gravano. The listener learns how local drug dealer Michael Papa befriends Gravano’s son, Gerard Gravano. The Phoenix narcotics squad is picking up rumors about a new gang selling ecstasy, muscling other street-level dealers, and claiming to be under the protection of the famous Gambino hitman, Sammy Gravano. The local cops still do not believe this to be true...
Dec 19, 2022
In this episode, Gary takes a close look at the 1946 mob meeting in Havana, Cuba. In 1946 Charles “Lucky” Luciano was residing in Italy after his deportation by the United States. He obtained an Italian passport issued in his real name, Salvatore Lucania, and obtained visas for travel in Mexico, Cuba, and several South American nations. Once he obtained these travel documents, Luciano journeyed to Caracas, Venezuela, then to Mexico City, and finally to Havana, Cuba. Luciano’s old friend Meyer La...
Dec 15, 2022
Retired Intelligence Unit Detective Gary Jenkins takes a deep dive into the Sammy the Bull Gravano story that sent him back to prison after he avoided a life sentence due to his work as a member of the Gambino Crime Family. This story starts when the government released Sammy the Bull from his five-year sentence after they allowed him to avoid racketeering, extortion, and murder convictions from his lifetime serving the Gambino crime family. He appears around 1995 in Phoenix, Arizona. Gravano op...
Dec 12, 2022
Intelligence Detective Gary Jenkins looks into the recent conviction of Michael Marcello for scamming Social Security. Michael Marcello is the brother of former Chicago outfit Boss James Marcello. He used to run all the Video Poker business for the Outfit. Michaele Marcello got into his first big trouble during the Family Secrets trial in 2007. He was meeting in a bugged visiting room with his brother Jimmy. The FBI overheard him taking orders and carrying out Outfit business. For example, he wa...
Dec 09, 2022
Intelligence detective Gary Jenkins interviews Adam Flowers, the host of Mob Vlog TV and the operator of Vegas Speciality Tours, about what to do and see in Las Vegas over the Christmas holiday. Support the Podcast Hit me up on Venmo for a cup of coffee or a shot and a beer @ganglandwireClick here to “buy me a cup of coffee” To go to the store or make a donation or rent Ballot Theft: Burglary, Murder, Coverup click here To rent Brothers against Brothers, the documentary, click here. To rent Gang...
Dec 09, 2022
Retired Intelligence Detective Gary Jenkins tells how Tony Accardo started in the Circus street gang stealing from stores, pedestrians, and loading docks in Chicago’s Loop. Accardo caught the eye of Al Capone during prohibition and was brought in as a bodyguard. He was able to recruit and manage his own crew with Ross Prio and the three Doms, Dominick DiBella, Dominic Nuccio, and Dominick Brancato. From this power base, Accardo started his rise. His first real show of ambition was when he decide...
Dec 05, 2022
Intelligence Detective Gary Jenkins tells the story of Great Britain’s most successful drug dealer Curtis Warren. He started as a bouncer in various clubs around the British seaport of Liverpool. Using this job, Warren connected with all the drug dealers and started learning the game from the inside. At the height of cocaine’s popularity as a party drug, Curtis Warren and an established smuggler named Brain Charrington used Charrington’s yacht to slip into France. From France, they secretly trav...
Dec 01, 2022
Retired Intelligence Detective Gary Jenkins interviews Sean Griffin, author of Gaming the Game: The Story behind the NBA Betting Scandal and other nonfiction crime-related books. Sean has a different take on the NBA referee in the eye of the storm, Tim Donaghy. After the recent Netflix documentary, Sean started speaking out about how the media takes everything Tim Donaghy claims as the truth. Sean published his book based on an examination of the date, and he came to different conclusions. For e...
Nov 28, 2022
Intelligence Detective Gary Jenkins interviews former Gambino associate Robert Borelli about his life as an understudy to Anthony “Fat Andy” Ruggiano in the Gambino family. Gary learned that a young Robert Borelli witnessed a mob murder and refused to talk or testify. After he went to trial as part of this murder charge, he was found not guilty. When he returned to the streets, he was lauded as a real stand-up guy and taken into the crew of Nicky Corrazo. It was after Robert Borelli became addic...
Nov 23, 2022
Retired KCPD Intelligence Detective Gary Jenkins interviews Allen Geik about his book Uncle Charlie Killed Dutch Schultz. Geik’s uncle was Charlie Workman, who was a significant tool in the arsenal of the Murder Incorporated murderous toolchest. Charlie Workman was one of the men who killed Dutch Schultz. Mr. Geik was unaware of Charlie Workman and only knew him as Uncle Charlie, a man who seemed to have shadowy connections and no regular job. He was talking with Workman’s son recently when he w...
Nov 21, 2022
Intelligence Detective Gary Jenkins talks with former Colombo associate and California strip club owner Kenji Gallo. In the second of a three-part series of interviews about the Christain conversion experiences of mobsters, we learn that Kenji Gallo had been a successful mob associate in southern California and made connections back east with Teddie Persico. He was recruited by the FBI to work as an informant, but he refused to incriminate his old California friends. He went to the New York City...
Nov 16, 2022
Retired Intelligence Detective Gary Jenkins interviews former Gotti associate Sal Polisi about his life from the mean streets of new york, to prison, to witness protection, and his post-mafia life. Gary has a candid conversation with Sal Polisi about his life in the mafia, how he turned and testified against John Gotti, and his post-mafia life. Sal Polisi started life as a New York street kid, was a drug dealer and mob associate, a protected witness, and ended as an author, a screenwriter, and a...
Nov 15, 2022
Retired Intelligence Detective Gary Jenkins interviews Jim Cosenza about his recollections of the characters and the evidence in the trial of Chicago Outfit Capo Mike Sarno. Sarno was also known as the “Large Guy” or “Big Mike” for obvious reasons. I recommend you go back and listen to my two-part interview of retired ATF Agent Lou Valoze because he tells what it was like to work his way into a crew bossed by Sarno associate Mark Polchan. Mike Sarno inherited Jimmy Marcello’s video poker operati...
Nov 07, 2022
Intelligence Detective Gary Jenkins looks into the conversion experience of several mobsters in this and two future shows. In this video, he tells listeners about Michael Franzese. Additionally, Gary tells about Ernie Davino, a now-deceased member of Tony Spilotro’s Las Vegas Hole in the Wall gang, and his Christian conversion experience. Michael Franzese is the son of Colombo Family Capo, John “Sonny” Franzese. Check out my interview with S.J. Peddie back on April 11, 2022. Gary learns that Mic...
Nov 04, 2022
Back in the 1960s and 1970s, the Chicago Outfit had a loyal soldier named Paul Shiro. The guys called him “The Indian” because he had facial features like a Native American. This man was a killer. I once did a story on four businessmen who were all killed with a gun firing .22 caliber bullets, and they were all killed inside one elevator. Paulie Shiro was the chief suspect when he moved to Phoenix to be the Outfit’s representative and work with Tony Spilotro in Las Vegas. When a casino employee ...
Nov 03, 2022
Hey guys, I am releasing a special short segment from a very interesting true crime podcast. Not my usual mafia fare, but I hope you find this to be a fun look at another style of true crime storytelling. You can find this podcast on the Amazon Music Podcast App. This is the spine-chilling case of Haley Zega, who disappeared from a hiking trail for 51 hours after getting separated from her grandparents. When search and rescuers finally found her and asked how she survived, she said a friend help...
Nov 01, 2022
Retired Intelligence Detective Gary Jenkins examines John Gotti’s first RICO trial to determine why the jury failed to convict him. We learn about the four mistakes made by the prosecution team of Diane Giacalone and John Gleeson. The first was the attempt to force Wilfred “Willie Boy” Johnson to testify by exposing him as a long-time FBI Top Echelon Informant. Willie Boy replied, “I can’t testify against John. He is my friend.” Diane Giacalone was long on trial experience but short on facing th...
Oct 31, 2022
Intelligence Detective Gary Jenkins interviews Michael DiLeonardo and learns about his early history and how he got his famous nickname, Mikey Scars. Michael DiLeonardo, aka Mikey Scars, was a made man in the Gambino crime family. He was made by the Underboss, Sam the Bull Gravano. On the night that Mikey Scars was inducted into the Family, John Gotti Jr. was also inducted. John Gotti Sr. was now the boss after he had Paul Castellano murdered, so he thought it looked bad if he inducted his own s...
Oct 24, 2022
Retired Intelligence Detective Gary Jenkins congratulates the Stockton Police Department on their successful surveillance to catch a serial killer. He explains, using his own experience, just how difficult this operation is for the officers involved. Support the Podcast Hit me up on Venmo for a cup of coffee or a shot and a beer @ganglandwireClick here to “buy me a cup of coffee” To go to the store or make a donation or rent Ballot Theft: Burglary, Murder, Coverup click here To rent Brothers aga...
Oct 18, 2022
Retired KCPD Intelligence Detective Gary Jenkins interviews William Hazelgrove, the author of Al Capone and the 1933 World’s Fair. He learns that this World’s Fair was one of the critical reasons the government created the special squad of Treasury agents to take Capone down by any means necessary. Mr. Hazelgrove describes how a group of anonymous businessmen called the Secret 6 pressured the Federal government to take down Capone. The negative publicity generated by the 1929 St. Valentine’s Day...
Oct 15, 2022
Retired Intelligence Detective Gary Jenkins interviews retired FBI Agent Bill Ouseley about the FBI and their Top hoodlum Program. Bill was one of the early agents the Bureau assigned to investigate solely La Cosa Nostra-style organized crime. We learn this happened after the 1957 raid of the New York farm of Mob boss Joseph Barbara, now known as the Apalachin meeting. Support the Podcast Hit me up on Venmo for a cup of coffee or a shot and a beer @ganglandwireClick here to “buy me a cup of coff...
Oct 12, 2022
Retired Intelligence Unit Detective Gary Jenkins and Mob historian and writer Camillius “Cam” Robinson discuss the Chicago Outfit and their infiltration of the Bartenders and Beverage Dispensers Union, which became an international union called Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Union until the present day, where it is known as Unite HERE. Edward Hanley rose to lead this powerful union with the help of Joey Aiuppa and the Chicago Outfit. Support the Podcast Hit me up on Venmo for a cup of ...
Oct 10, 2022
Retired KCPD Intelligence Detective Gary Jenkins looks at the life of the Chicago Outfit’s Paul Ricca. We learn he probably was responsible for the suicide of Frank Nitti, that he was a “behind the scenes” boss and made decisions with Anthony Accardo for many years. Support the Podcast Hit me up on Venmo for a cup of coffee or a shot and a beer @ganglandwireClick here to “buy me a cup of coffee” To go to the store or make a donation or rent Ballot Theft: Burglary, Murder, Coverup click here To r...
Oct 05, 2022
Retired Intelligence Detective Gary Jenkins discusses the Yakuza with retired ATF agent Ignacio Esteban. We learn about the case where the government caught them buying rocket launchers. Ignacio Esteban is a true-crime author who has written a book on his illustrious career working undercover on drug dealers in South Florida. Since retirement, Mr. Esteban has written books on the Russian Arms dealer Viktor Bout, Sonny Barger, and the Hells Angels, several traditional organized crime organization...
Oct 03, 2022
