"Mysteries at the Museum" American Mobster: Mysteries at the Museum Specials

1 00:00:02,050 --> 00:00:03,020 In the late 19th century, 2 00:00:03,120 --> 00:00:05,420 the immigrant ghettos of New York gave birth 3 00:00:05,460 --> 00:00:08,230 to a secret empire that was called the mob. 4 00:00:08,330 --> 00:00:12,500 Built on an insatiable appetite of wealth and power, 5 00:00:12,560 --> 00:00:16,100 the mob grew in the shadows and then spread coast to coast. 6 00:00:18,800 --> 00:00:22,070 But how much do we really know about the mob? 7 00:00:22,070 --> 00:00:25,010 And can we untangle its web of murderous rivalries, 8 00:00:25,010 --> 00:00:29,310 criminal conspiracies and unsolved mysteries? 9 00:00:29,380 --> 00:00:31,710 From covert bunkers for bootleg liquor, 10 00:00:31,750 --> 00:00:34,550 to clandestine deals between iconic gangsters, 11 00:00:34,550 --> 00:00:38,320 to facing off with Hitler to help the U.S. win World War II, 12 00:00:38,390 --> 00:00:42,730 new details are emerging on some of the most incredible stories 13 00:00:42,860 --> 00:00:45,960 that the mob didn't want anyone to know. 14 00:00:46,070 --> 00:00:47,660 Why haven't I heard about this until now? 15 00:00:47,770 --> 00:00:49,570 The government didn't want you to hear about it. 16 00:00:49,670 --> 00:00:52,070 I'm on a quest to uncover the hidden truths 17 00:00:52,170 --> 00:00:55,270 still being kept by one of the world's most secretive 18 00:00:55,340 --> 00:00:57,870 and dangerous organizations. 19 00:01:02,280 --> 00:01:05,350 I'm Don Wildman. I've explored the world's greatest mysteries, 20 00:01:05,380 --> 00:01:08,590 examined rare artifacts and epic monuments. 21 00:01:08,650 --> 00:01:10,420 That is unbelievable. 22 00:01:10,490 --> 00:01:12,890 Now, I'm digging deeper into some of the most 23 00:01:12,960 --> 00:01:15,290 perplexing and famous cases in history. 24 00:01:15,360 --> 00:01:18,360 My goal, to get closer to the truth. 25 00:01:18,460 --> 00:01:20,500 Let's burn this place down. Burn it down. 26 00:01:22,130 --> 00:01:24,800 On this special episode of "Mysteries at the Museum: 27 00:01:24,900 --> 00:01:27,000 American Mobster." 28 00:01:29,000 --> 00:01:35,074 29 00:01:46,390 --> 00:01:49,560 (Don) The mafia, La Cosa Nostra, "The Black Hand." 30 00:01:49,600 --> 00:01:52,730 For over 100 years, the American mob 31 00:01:52,800 --> 00:01:54,900 has been known by many different names. 32 00:01:54,930 --> 00:01:58,400 But how much do we really understand about this 33 00:01:58,470 --> 00:02:02,210 shadowy organization known for its absolute secrecy? 34 00:02:02,340 --> 00:02:04,570 What is the mob? 35 00:02:08,080 --> 00:02:11,080 Popular knowledge is that the mob began in Sicily. 36 00:02:11,080 --> 00:02:13,950 Indeed, it was there that Italian criminals 37 00:02:13,990 --> 00:02:16,420 found strength in numbers and organized 38 00:02:16,520 --> 00:02:18,960 their illegal activities to evade the law, 39 00:02:18,960 --> 00:02:21,290 and more importantly, make money. 40 00:02:21,430 --> 00:02:23,830 For years, the mafia thrived in Italy, 41 00:02:23,860 --> 00:02:26,100 but by the late 1800s, 42 00:02:26,200 --> 00:02:28,230 a new wave of Italian immigrants 43 00:02:28,330 --> 00:02:31,130 brought the criminal enterprise to America. 44 00:02:31,240 --> 00:02:35,200 It was here that the mafia would come to lead 45 00:02:35,240 --> 00:02:38,440 a nationwide crime syndicate whose influence stretched 46 00:02:38,440 --> 00:02:41,440 from the New York ghettos all the way to the White House. 47 00:02:43,880 --> 00:02:47,050 But what most people think they know about the mob is wrong. 48 00:02:47,150 --> 00:02:49,250 Take Al Capone, 49 00:02:49,250 --> 00:02:51,250 when most people think of the American mob 50 00:02:51,320 --> 00:02:54,320 they think of the man the media dubbed "Scarface." 51 00:02:54,330 --> 00:02:57,060 But what most people don't know 52 00:02:57,200 --> 00:03:00,130 is that while he was the most famous gangster in America, 53 00:03:00,270 --> 00:03:02,870 Al Capone wasn't the most powerful. 54 00:03:02,870 --> 00:03:04,130 Far from it. 55 00:03:04,270 --> 00:03:06,940 In fact, Scarface answered to someone else. 56 00:03:06,970 --> 00:03:10,870 So, who were these secret mob power brokers? 57 00:03:13,950 --> 00:03:15,880 To truly understand the American mob, 58 00:03:15,950 --> 00:03:18,150 you have to go back to the very beginning, 59 00:03:18,220 --> 00:03:20,880 right here, to a place called Five Points. 60 00:03:20,990 --> 00:03:24,690 Looking around today, you'd never know it, 61 00:03:24,720 --> 00:03:28,760 but this is the birthplace of organized crime in America. 62 00:03:28,860 --> 00:03:34,030 Here the heads of state of New York's most violent gangs joined forces. 63 00:03:34,100 --> 00:03:37,670 The result was the dreaded Five Points Gang. 64 00:03:41,010 --> 00:03:43,040 Think of Five Points as a training ground 65 00:03:43,110 --> 00:03:46,910 for what will become America's most iconic and dangerous mobsters. 66 00:03:46,910 --> 00:03:49,650 Its streets were a cacophony of foreign languages, 67 00:03:49,680 --> 00:03:53,250 a blend of mostly Italian, Irish, and Jewish immigrants 68 00:03:53,390 --> 00:03:56,520 living in tightly packed streets and alleyways, 69 00:03:56,590 --> 00:04:00,320 slum conditions with one of the highest murder rates in the world. 70 00:04:00,460 --> 00:04:04,330 It's astonishing how many infamous criminals got their start 71 00:04:04,330 --> 00:04:07,460 in the two decades the gang ruled lower New York. 72 00:04:07,470 --> 00:04:10,870 But, two members of the Five Points Gang 73 00:04:10,940 --> 00:04:15,000 would rise above the others and help create the American mob. 74 00:04:15,010 --> 00:04:19,480 Their names are Meyer Lansky and Charles "Lucky" Luciano. 75 00:04:23,320 --> 00:04:25,550 Charles "Lucky" Luciano was a born leader. 76 00:04:25,580 --> 00:04:29,750 From an early age, his charisma, charm, and guile were obvious. 77 00:04:29,760 --> 00:04:33,290 After coming from Italy when he was 9 years old, 78 00:04:33,330 --> 00:04:37,290 he found himself at home on the rough and tumble streets of Five Points. 79 00:04:37,330 --> 00:04:40,760 By the time he was 15, he had dropped out of school. 80 00:04:40,800 --> 00:04:43,970 He made money by offering to Jewish youngsters protection 81 00:04:44,000 --> 00:04:47,040 from Italian and Irish gangs for 10 cents a week. 82 00:04:47,170 --> 00:04:49,710 It was an ingenious racket that showed how 83 00:04:49,740 --> 00:04:52,240 the future mob boss thought outside the box. 84 00:04:55,880 --> 00:04:58,720 It's also how he came to meet Meyer Lansky. 85 00:05:01,490 --> 00:05:04,590 Lansky came to America in 1911 from what is now Belarus 86 00:05:04,660 --> 00:05:08,220 and immediately fell in with the Jewish gangs on the lower east side. 87 00:05:10,530 --> 00:05:12,930 His instant friendship with Luciano would pay dividends. 88 00:05:12,960 --> 00:05:15,800 If Luciano gave the mob its swagger, 89 00:05:15,800 --> 00:05:19,200 Lansky lent his acute deal-making and gambling prowess. 90 00:05:19,340 --> 00:05:22,670 While he kept everything close to the vest, 91 00:05:22,810 --> 00:05:25,810 it is believed that he would go on to become 92 00:05:25,880 --> 00:05:27,780 one of the richest gangsters in history. 93 00:05:31,780 --> 00:05:34,220 These guys embraced the code of silence 94 00:05:34,220 --> 00:05:37,690 and no one took that more to heart than Luciano. 95 00:05:37,760 --> 00:05:41,420 After immigrating to the U.S. from Italy in 1906, 96 00:05:41,430 --> 00:05:43,890 Luciano moved to this walkup tenement 97 00:05:44,030 --> 00:05:46,030 on New York's Lower East Side. 98 00:05:46,130 --> 00:05:48,630 It was here he began running with the Five Points Gang 99 00:05:48,700 --> 00:05:50,930 and earned the nickname "Lucky." 100 00:05:55,810 --> 00:05:59,240 By the time he was 23, Luciano had outwitted or killed 101 00:05:59,280 --> 00:06:02,910 so many rivals in town that he became a major player 102 00:06:02,980 --> 00:06:04,710 in the New York crime scene. 103 00:06:11,290 --> 00:06:13,860 But by the 1920s, Luciano's gang 104 00:06:13,860 --> 00:06:16,390 had become more than just violent thugs. 105 00:06:16,390 --> 00:06:18,560 They'd expanded into the prostitution, 106 00:06:18,560 --> 00:06:21,000 drugs, and extortion rackets. 107 00:06:21,070 --> 00:06:23,600 Luciano and Lansky had a vision. 108 00:06:23,600 --> 00:06:25,800 They wanted to turn the mob into 109 00:06:25,940 --> 00:06:28,200 the most powerful force in the U.S. 110 00:06:28,240 --> 00:06:30,010 and run it like a corporation, 111 00:06:30,140 --> 00:06:33,480 but their lofty ambitions could only carry them so far. 112 00:06:33,550 --> 00:06:36,810 Ironically, it was an act by the U.S. Government 113 00:06:36,880 --> 00:06:38,820 that would introduce to the mob 114 00:06:38,880 --> 00:06:40,820 the most lucrative racket yet. 115 00:06:40,890 --> 00:06:43,190 Bootlegging. 116 00:06:43,320 --> 00:06:45,490 In the early 1900s, 117 00:06:45,560 --> 00:06:48,420 alcoholism was a hotly debated topic. 118 00:06:48,430 --> 00:06:50,830 And America was its moral battleground. 119 00:06:50,900 --> 00:06:54,230 In 1919, Congress passed the Volstead Act, 120 00:06:54,330 --> 00:06:56,970 and on January 17, 1920, 121 00:06:57,040 --> 00:06:58,870 Prohibition was born. 122 00:07:00,810 --> 00:07:02,710 Overnight, drinking, selling, 123 00:07:02,810 --> 00:07:05,580 and making alcohol became illegal. 124 00:07:05,680 --> 00:07:07,780 But the laws were widely ignored, 125 00:07:07,850 --> 00:07:10,280 and secret establishments called speakeasies 126 00:07:10,320 --> 00:07:13,250 began popping up in American cities. 127 00:07:13,250 --> 00:07:17,590 Illicit alcohol became big business, and it was everywhere. 128 00:07:21,360 --> 00:07:23,060 This played right into the hands 129 00:07:23,090 --> 00:07:26,530 of the mob and power brokers like Lansky and Luciano. 130 00:07:26,570 --> 00:07:28,530 By muscling in on labor unions 131 00:07:28,670 --> 00:07:32,340 and bribing local politicians, they already had a grip 132 00:07:32,340 --> 00:07:34,870 on New York's waterfront and were able to dock 133 00:07:34,940 --> 00:07:38,810 enormous ships full of alcohol from other countries with ease. 134 00:07:38,940 --> 00:07:41,740 But it didn't stop there. 135 00:07:44,150 --> 00:07:47,150 While some of that alcohol stayed in New York, 136 00:07:47,220 --> 00:07:50,890 the rest was distributed across the country. 137 00:07:50,890 --> 00:07:53,890 And the mob got a cut of it all. 138 00:07:57,660 --> 00:08:00,430 But there were growing pains, and soon violent wars 139 00:08:00,500 --> 00:08:03,470 between rival mobsters erupted in major U.S. cities, 140 00:08:03,570 --> 00:08:06,270 creating a lot of unwanted attention 141 00:08:06,340 --> 00:08:09,470 from both the news media and the police. 142 00:08:09,510 --> 00:08:12,980 So, in 1929 Luciano, Lansky, and the heads 143 00:08:13,110 --> 00:08:15,910 of all the major crime families from around the country 144 00:08:15,950 --> 00:08:18,080 converged on Atlantic City, New Jersey. 145 00:08:21,020 --> 00:08:23,590 The first order of business was their biggest headache... 146 00:08:23,590 --> 00:08:28,060 his name, Al Capone. 147 00:08:31,330 --> 00:08:35,360 Born in Brooklyn, Al Capone had been an early member of the Five Points Gang. 148 00:08:35,430 --> 00:08:39,340 Known for his quick temper and brute force, 149 00:08:39,400 --> 00:08:42,200 Capone was always in the middle of the action. 150 00:08:42,240 --> 00:08:45,010 An early dust up left him with a prominent knife wound 151 00:08:45,040 --> 00:08:48,210 on his left cheek and earned him the nickname "Scarface." 152 00:08:48,250 --> 00:08:51,880 In the early '20s, he moved to Chicago 153 00:08:51,950 --> 00:08:54,220 and became a central figure in the bootlegging 154 00:08:54,250 --> 00:08:56,490 and prostitution rings there. 155 00:08:56,520 --> 00:08:59,490 But what most people don't know is that Al Capone's love 156 00:08:59,490 --> 00:09:01,490 of the spotlight and violent temper 157 00:09:01,490 --> 00:09:03,330 would actually put him at odds 158 00:09:03,460 --> 00:09:06,760 with Lucky Luciano and place his life in danger. 159 00:09:18,940 --> 00:09:21,580 I'm heading to The Mob Museum in Las Vegas 160 00:09:21,610 --> 00:09:24,250 to find out about this little known face off 161 00:09:24,380 --> 00:09:27,180 and learn a little more about the mob war zone 162 00:09:27,320 --> 00:09:29,020 that was Prohibition. 163 00:09:33,560 --> 00:09:35,520 It was pretty ugly in Chicago. 164 00:09:35,590 --> 00:09:39,560 [gunfire blasts] 165 00:09:39,660 --> 00:09:40,930 They called them the "Beer Wars." 166 00:09:41,000 --> 00:09:43,100 There was all kinds of shooting going on, 167 00:09:43,170 --> 00:09:46,440 famously depicted in movies with Tommy guns being shot 168 00:09:46,500 --> 00:09:49,670 out of the sides of cars racing down narrow streets. Yeah. 169 00:09:49,770 --> 00:09:53,540 (Don) The body count grew until it came down to just two sides. 170 00:09:53,650 --> 00:09:57,750 There was no bigger rivalry than between Al Capone's outfit 171 00:09:57,880 --> 00:10:00,680 and the North Side Irish Gang. 172 00:10:00,820 --> 00:10:03,220 (Don) The tipping point came when three men 173 00:10:03,350 --> 00:10:05,290 walked into a neighborhood garage 174 00:10:05,290 --> 00:10:08,560 looking for North Side gang boss, George "Bugs" Moran. 175 00:10:08,690 --> 00:10:13,100 The date was February 14, 1929, 176 00:10:13,130 --> 00:10:15,500 Valentine's Day. 177 00:10:15,630 --> 00:10:21,140 On Valentine's Day, these men from Bugs Moran's group assemble in this garage. 178 00:10:21,140 --> 00:10:22,570 And what happens then? 179 00:10:22,610 --> 00:10:25,040 Three men walk in, two of them are dressed up 180 00:10:25,140 --> 00:10:27,540 as police officers, and these--they say, 181 00:10:27,680 --> 00:10:29,050 "Hey, we're the police," you know, 182 00:10:29,110 --> 00:10:31,010 "Up against the wall." Okay. 183 00:10:31,050 --> 00:10:33,850 And the Bugs Moran people are completely unsuspecting, right? 184 00:10:33,850 --> 00:10:35,150 They've got their backs turned. 185 00:10:35,190 --> 00:10:37,320 They're leaning against this brick wall. 186 00:10:37,390 --> 00:10:38,920 They didn't know it was coming. 187 00:10:41,460 --> 00:10:45,230 (Don) What happened next would go down as Prohibition's most notorious blood bath. 188 00:10:45,260 --> 00:10:49,330 [gunfire blasts] 189 00:10:49,330 --> 00:10:51,000 The Saint Valentine's Day Massacre. 190 00:10:55,540 --> 00:10:58,810 In a heartbeat, seven members of Bugs Moran's North Side gang 191 00:10:58,810 --> 00:11:02,280 lay dead and dying at the foot of a bullet-riddled brick wall. 192 00:11:02,350 --> 00:11:05,750 The Saint Valentine's Day Massacre became 193 00:11:05,780 --> 00:11:08,820 the most infamous execution in U.S. crime history 194 00:11:08,820 --> 00:11:11,350 and changed the American mob forever. 195 00:11:17,100 --> 00:11:18,690 This is the massacre wall. 196 00:11:18,760 --> 00:11:20,300 Wow, really? 197 00:11:20,370 --> 00:11:21,700 That's the wall itself? 198 00:11:21,730 --> 00:11:23,100 For the Roaring Twenties reporters, 199 00:11:23,100 --> 00:11:26,500 the Saint Valentine's Day Massacre was the ultimate headline. 200 00:11:26,640 --> 00:11:30,970 This was the biggest crime story of 1929, 30, and 31. 201 00:11:31,110 --> 00:11:32,910 Wow, okay. 202 00:11:32,980 --> 00:11:34,710 (Don) Though he maintained his innocence, 203 00:11:34,710 --> 00:11:36,780 Al Capone became the lead suspect. 204 00:11:36,910 --> 00:11:40,780 Before the massacre, the press had played up Capone 205 00:11:40,920 --> 00:11:43,050 as if he was a people's hero. 206 00:11:43,190 --> 00:11:46,520 He became a celebrity. Everybody knew Al Capone's name. 207 00:11:46,660 --> 00:11:49,190 Everybody pretty much knew what he was up to. 208 00:11:49,330 --> 00:11:53,430 Now, the same newspapers that featured Capone kissing babies 209 00:11:53,530 --> 00:11:56,270 and signing autographs were out for his blood. 210 00:11:56,370 --> 00:12:00,740 Al Capone's name came up again and again and again. 211 00:12:00,840 --> 00:12:04,870 To make matters worse, Capone's main rival, 212 00:12:04,880 --> 00:12:07,880 Bugs Moran, wasn't even at the scene of the crime. 213 00:12:08,010 --> 00:12:11,180 Bugs Moran was actually late for the meeting. 214 00:12:11,250 --> 00:12:15,080 (Don) Negative publicity from the massacre was unprecedented. 215 00:12:15,150 --> 00:12:18,690 The blow back reached all the way to the White House. 216 00:12:21,990 --> 00:12:25,830 Herbert Hoover, the president, said, "We need to get Capone." 217 00:12:25,830 --> 00:12:28,760 (Don) From the start of Capone's meteoric rise, 218 00:12:28,770 --> 00:12:31,300 Lucky Luciano had taken a dim view 219 00:12:31,370 --> 00:12:34,740 of a major earner like Scarface becoming a household name. 220 00:12:38,280 --> 00:12:40,980 Now, Capone was the media's number one suspect 221 00:12:41,110 --> 00:12:43,580 in the biggest murder story in the country. 222 00:12:43,650 --> 00:12:45,750 This is the Roaring Twenties. 223 00:12:45,820 --> 00:12:47,250 Yeah. The birth of media. 224 00:12:47,390 --> 00:12:48,980 The newspapers are going crazy. 225 00:12:49,020 --> 00:12:51,520 It was terrible for organized crime. 226 00:12:51,560 --> 00:12:55,720 (Don) With the mob now at the center of a media firestorm, 227 00:12:55,790 --> 00:12:59,900 Lucky Luciano had a decision to make. 228 00:13:02,530 --> 00:13:04,170 What to do with Al Capone. 229 00:13:09,570 --> 00:13:11,510 In May of 1929, 230 00:13:11,540 --> 00:13:14,380 the leaders of organized crime from all over the U.S. 231 00:13:14,450 --> 00:13:17,050 met in Atlantic City, New Jersey. 232 00:13:17,050 --> 00:13:20,980 Their goal was to make money, but violent bootleg wars 233 00:13:21,090 --> 00:13:24,220 between crime families had gotten out of hand. 234 00:13:24,290 --> 00:13:26,190 The biggest and bloodiest mess of them all 235 00:13:26,290 --> 00:13:29,120 was what was coined the Saint Valentine's Day Massacre. 236 00:13:29,160 --> 00:13:33,060 The high-profile mob hit rocked Chicago 237 00:13:33,130 --> 00:13:35,400 and made well known gangster, Al Capone, 238 00:13:35,430 --> 00:13:37,930 public enemy number one. 239 00:13:37,940 --> 00:13:39,870 And the head of the powerful New York mob, 240 00:13:39,870 --> 00:13:42,000 Lucky Luciano, wasn't happy. 241 00:13:42,070 --> 00:13:44,940 The bad press meant more scrutiny from the FBI, 242 00:13:44,940 --> 00:13:47,010 and that was bad for business. 243 00:13:47,050 --> 00:13:49,980 So what could be done about Al Capone? 244 00:13:56,450 --> 00:14:00,290 A few weeks later, Al Capone was arrested in Philadelphia on gun charges. 245 00:14:00,360 --> 00:14:03,360 The media rejoiced. 246 00:14:03,490 --> 00:14:05,490 Justice was finally being served. 247 00:14:05,500 --> 00:14:07,900 Or was it? 248 00:14:07,900 --> 00:14:11,500 In fact, what no one knew was that the arresting officer 249 00:14:11,570 --> 00:14:14,570 was friendly to the mob and ultimately answered to 250 00:14:14,570 --> 00:14:17,770 the East Coast's biggest crime boss, Lucky Luciano. 251 00:14:20,880 --> 00:14:24,650 Was this an elaborate plan for the mob to enact its own form of punishment? 252 00:14:24,680 --> 00:14:27,150 Would this be the end of Al Capone? 253 00:14:30,920 --> 00:14:32,860 My search for the whole story has led me here, 254 00:14:32,860 --> 00:14:35,590 to Philadelphia's Eastern State Penitentiary, 255 00:14:35,630 --> 00:14:39,060 the setting of a forgotten chapter in the life of Al Capone. 256 00:14:41,500 --> 00:14:43,870 Just three months after the Saint Valentine's Day Massacre, 257 00:14:44,000 --> 00:14:46,400 Capone was arrested and sentenced to a year 258 00:14:46,540 --> 00:14:48,740 inside these now decaying walls. 259 00:14:52,240 --> 00:14:55,310 But was Scarface locked up or holed up? 260 00:14:58,550 --> 00:15:00,820 Immediately after the Saint Valentine's Day Massacre, 261 00:15:00,890 --> 00:15:03,220 Capone's bad publicity was getting in the way 262 00:15:03,290 --> 00:15:05,220 of the mob making money, 263 00:15:05,290 --> 00:15:07,560 and for Lucky Luciano, that was unacceptable. 264 00:15:07,590 --> 00:15:10,630 For most mobsters on the wrong side of Luciano, 265 00:15:10,630 --> 00:15:12,260 that would be a death sentence. 266 00:15:15,830 --> 00:15:18,500 But Al Capone wasn't most mobsters. 267 00:15:18,540 --> 00:15:22,440 That's amazing. 268 00:15:22,540 --> 00:15:24,440 How about this, huh? 269 00:15:24,580 --> 00:15:27,510 A nice little home away from home for a crime kingpin. 270 00:15:29,750 --> 00:15:32,050 It turns out that at the Atlantic City conference 271 00:15:32,180 --> 00:15:34,650 Luciano and Capone would come face to face. 272 00:15:34,720 --> 00:15:36,920 Luciano and the other crime bosses 273 00:15:36,990 --> 00:15:39,490 had decided that while Capone was important 274 00:15:39,490 --> 00:15:43,260 to their Chicago operations, something had to be done. 275 00:15:43,290 --> 00:15:46,460 So they made a deal, if Capone went to jail for a while 276 00:15:46,530 --> 00:15:49,370 and stayed out of the papers maybe the heat would die down. 277 00:15:49,470 --> 00:15:52,800 His punishment would be in name only. 278 00:15:52,870 --> 00:15:55,940 In fact, it wasn't a bad setup for the man 279 00:15:55,970 --> 00:15:58,340 the media called "Scarface," and he knew it. 280 00:15:58,480 --> 00:16:01,440 I mean, this is really quite a comfortable little apartment. 281 00:16:01,510 --> 00:16:04,910 Bigger than some I've lived in in my life. 282 00:16:04,950 --> 00:16:07,750 Capone agreed, and with the help 283 00:16:07,750 --> 00:16:10,890 of a few mob-friendly prison guards, waited out his year-long 284 00:16:11,020 --> 00:16:13,920 slap on the wrist in this gilded cage. 285 00:16:16,760 --> 00:16:18,690 Sure enough, the strategy worked. 286 00:16:18,760 --> 00:16:21,300 With Capone locked up, the media frenzy around 287 00:16:21,400 --> 00:16:23,670 the Saint Valentine's Day Massacre died down. 288 00:16:23,770 --> 00:16:27,400 And soon, the mob was back at it, 289 00:16:27,470 --> 00:16:29,370 making money hand over fist. 290 00:16:31,380 --> 00:16:33,840 For the next two years, Luciano and Lansky 291 00:16:33,980 --> 00:16:35,980 worked on achieving their dream 292 00:16:36,010 --> 00:16:38,050 of creating one true American mob. 293 00:16:38,120 --> 00:16:41,180 By 1931, along with the heads 294 00:16:41,220 --> 00:16:43,190 of the four other major U.S. crime families, 295 00:16:43,320 --> 00:16:46,590 they formed the first nationwide crime syndicate, 296 00:16:46,660 --> 00:16:48,920 and Luciano was the chairman. 297 00:16:54,130 --> 00:16:57,470 But if seamlessly managing organized crime across the U.S. 298 00:16:57,540 --> 00:17:01,000 was the goal, Dutch Schultz, would be the syndicate's 299 00:17:01,070 --> 00:17:03,570 first true test. 300 00:17:03,610 --> 00:17:06,340 Schultz was a master of secrecy and the most prolific 301 00:17:06,440 --> 00:17:10,010 and successful gangster that most people have never heard of. 302 00:17:17,790 --> 00:17:21,020 In the 1920s, bootlegged liquor was big business. 303 00:17:21,090 --> 00:17:24,030 Demand was sky high in the cities. 304 00:17:24,060 --> 00:17:26,300 So supply presented a challenge. 305 00:17:26,400 --> 00:17:29,770 How would the mob manufacture enough alcohol 306 00:17:29,900 --> 00:17:33,770 to keep the booze flowing in thousands of speakeasies 307 00:17:33,810 --> 00:17:35,340 from New York to Chicago? 308 00:17:37,840 --> 00:17:40,440 The answer was expert bootleggers, 309 00:17:40,580 --> 00:17:43,380 and none were better and more feared than Dutch Schultz. 310 00:17:43,410 --> 00:17:46,380 But what Luciano liked most about Schultz 311 00:17:46,380 --> 00:17:49,450 was his ability to stay low and keep a secret. 312 00:17:49,450 --> 00:17:52,050 By the late '20s, Schultz had mastered the art 313 00:17:52,160 --> 00:17:54,120 of distributing illegal booze to New York 314 00:17:54,230 --> 00:17:55,990 and the rest of the East Coast. 315 00:17:56,060 --> 00:17:57,730 But where did it come from? 316 00:17:57,800 --> 00:17:59,930 No one knew. 317 00:18:00,000 --> 00:18:02,670 Turns out Schultz had created a secret distillery 318 00:18:02,670 --> 00:18:05,530 in the Catskill Mountains that helped him make a fortune. 319 00:18:10,940 --> 00:18:13,340 At its peak, Dutch Schultz's upstate headquarters 320 00:18:13,410 --> 00:18:18,450 had some 16,000 gallons of surreptitious spirits on hand. 321 00:18:18,580 --> 00:18:21,880 16,000 gallons of booze is a lot. 322 00:18:22,020 --> 00:18:24,290 I mean, imagine how much equipment you need 323 00:18:24,360 --> 00:18:26,090 to make that, the personnel involved. 324 00:18:26,190 --> 00:18:28,020 You need a lot of space. 325 00:18:28,030 --> 00:18:30,630 We're standing in the middle of a farm surrounded by woods. 326 00:18:30,660 --> 00:18:33,360 How would you not get caught doing that? 327 00:18:33,460 --> 00:18:36,160 The answer is it's hidden in plain sight. 328 00:18:36,230 --> 00:18:38,630 The distillery is beneath my feet. 329 00:18:45,380 --> 00:18:47,710 Since the days of Prohibition, the roof and sides 330 00:18:47,750 --> 00:18:50,050 of Dutch Schultz's bunker have been excavated, 331 00:18:50,050 --> 00:18:52,710 and the inside space is now part of 332 00:18:52,780 --> 00:18:55,890 a legal distillery called Dutch's Spirits. 333 00:19:10,400 --> 00:19:12,400 Huh! This is awesome. 334 00:19:12,540 --> 00:19:15,270 I mean, look at the scope of this place, 335 00:19:15,270 --> 00:19:17,470 the size and scale. 336 00:19:17,510 --> 00:19:20,280 No other bootlegger had been able to make 337 00:19:20,280 --> 00:19:23,610 so much alcohol and maintain such a low profile. 338 00:19:26,480 --> 00:19:28,220 Schultz had thought of everything, including 339 00:19:28,220 --> 00:19:30,490 how both he and his workers could escape. 340 00:19:30,560 --> 00:19:33,760 This is a tunnel system. How interesting is that? 341 00:19:33,860 --> 00:19:36,420 Let's check this out. 342 00:19:36,460 --> 00:19:39,460 [grunts] 343 00:19:39,530 --> 00:19:43,300 [breathing heavy] 344 00:19:51,240 --> 00:19:54,980 It's very tight quarters 345 00:19:55,050 --> 00:19:57,910 moving down here. They go forever, too. 346 00:19:58,050 --> 00:20:01,180 I mean, there's a whole 'nother tunnel system down that way. 347 00:20:01,190 --> 00:20:03,850 It's just crazy. 348 00:20:06,920 --> 00:20:09,260 This network of tunnels gave Dutch and his employees 349 00:20:09,390 --> 00:20:11,690 an escape route if the Feds came calling. 350 00:20:14,730 --> 00:20:16,400 At the first sign of a raid, they would drop down 351 00:20:16,470 --> 00:20:19,740 into this maze of passageways and emerge from exits 352 00:20:19,800 --> 00:20:21,470 hidden in the surrounding countryside. 353 00:20:28,610 --> 00:20:30,550 His raid-proof underground distillery 354 00:20:30,620 --> 00:20:32,950 made Dutch Schultz the king of the bootleggers 355 00:20:33,020 --> 00:20:36,280 and a favorite of Luciano's. 356 00:20:36,350 --> 00:20:39,420 But one day, everything changed. 357 00:20:39,460 --> 00:20:44,360 In 1932, the Feds conducted multiple raids on the distillery. 358 00:20:44,460 --> 00:20:47,160 Dutch's secret was out. 359 00:20:54,540 --> 00:20:56,570 Soon, the bootlegger became a favorite target 360 00:20:56,640 --> 00:21:00,240 of New York State prosecutor, Thomas Dewey. 361 00:21:00,280 --> 00:21:04,110 The politically savvy Dewey knew that taking down 362 00:21:04,250 --> 00:21:06,780 a big-time mobster could win him clout. 363 00:21:06,820 --> 00:21:09,320 So he went after Schultz 364 00:21:09,420 --> 00:21:11,190 for tax evasion 365 00:21:11,260 --> 00:21:13,720 putting Dutch's fortune at risk. 366 00:21:16,860 --> 00:21:20,200 According to private detective and mob expert Bruce Altman, 367 00:21:20,260 --> 00:21:23,800 Thomas Dewey was close to putting Schultz out of business for good, 368 00:21:23,830 --> 00:21:26,870 and Dutch went ballistic. 369 00:21:27,000 --> 00:21:30,340 You could curse at Dutch Schultz, you can spit at Dutch Schultz, 370 00:21:30,440 --> 00:21:32,370 but don't ever take a dollar from him, 371 00:21:32,410 --> 00:21:34,310 because he'll kill you. Yeah. 372 00:21:34,380 --> 00:21:37,150 But he knew that rubbing out a high-profile prosecutor 373 00:21:37,210 --> 00:21:39,820 meant getting the permission of the mob's top brass, 374 00:21:39,920 --> 00:21:42,650 so he paid a visit to Lucky Luciano. 375 00:21:42,650 --> 00:21:46,290 Dutch made a plea to the syndicate or the commission, 376 00:21:46,390 --> 00:21:48,290 as you say, in front of the table and said 377 00:21:48,390 --> 00:21:50,290 he wanted to kill Dewey 378 00:21:50,390 --> 00:21:53,500 to get them clear of his prosecution. 379 00:21:53,500 --> 00:21:54,900 Not a great idea for them. 380 00:21:54,970 --> 00:21:57,830 That would have brought a lot of heat onto them from the Feds. Exactly. 381 00:21:57,940 --> 00:22:00,700 They knew if they killed Dewey that the Feds would come in 382 00:22:00,740 --> 00:22:04,640 and really come down on their operation. Yeah. 383 00:22:04,640 --> 00:22:08,440 It was denied by Lucky Luciano, 384 00:22:08,480 --> 00:22:11,710 so Schultz went into a rage Huh. 385 00:22:11,720 --> 00:22:14,480 and said that he was going to do it himself. Okay. 386 00:22:18,590 --> 00:22:21,990 Lucky Luciano had dozens of men killed for less, 387 00:22:22,060 --> 00:22:24,860 yet Dutch Schultz was one of Lucky's top earners, 388 00:22:25,000 --> 00:22:27,930 so how would the most powerful mobster in America 389 00:22:27,970 --> 00:22:31,330 handle this unprecedented challenge to his authority? 390 00:22:31,400 --> 00:22:34,140 Was Lucky Luciano going to compromise, 391 00:22:34,210 --> 00:22:37,340 or had Dutch Schultz just signed his own death warrant? 392 00:22:51,020 --> 00:22:53,660 In the mid-1930s, Meyer Lansky and Lucky Luciano 393 00:22:53,660 --> 00:22:57,660 had achieved a dream by creating a nationwide crime syndicate. 394 00:22:57,660 --> 00:23:00,930 It was the first true American mob, 395 00:23:00,970 --> 00:23:02,930 but it wasn't long before they faced 396 00:23:03,000 --> 00:23:05,630 a major test right in their own backyard. 397 00:23:05,770 --> 00:23:08,770 New York gangster, Dutch Schultz, 398 00:23:08,770 --> 00:23:12,510 wanted to kill well-known prosecutor, Thomas Dewey. 399 00:23:12,510 --> 00:23:14,110 Luciano said no. 400 00:23:14,180 --> 00:23:16,250 But Schultz wasn't listening. 401 00:23:19,680 --> 00:23:21,220 Dutch Schultz is an old-school mobster, 402 00:23:21,290 --> 00:23:24,590 and they're trying to make this a professional syndicate, 403 00:23:24,620 --> 00:23:27,520 which is impossible to do with his kind of rage and outbursts. 404 00:23:27,660 --> 00:23:31,460 Two days later, they had a secret meeting, 405 00:23:31,460 --> 00:23:35,500 and Lucky Luciano said that they needed Dutch Schultz killed. 406 00:23:38,500 --> 00:23:40,770 This is huge! Dutch Schultz is a major mobster. 407 00:23:45,480 --> 00:23:49,780 On October 23, 1935 two assassins ambushed Dutch Schultz 408 00:23:49,910 --> 00:23:53,310 in the men's room of the Palace Chop House in Newark, New Jersey. 409 00:23:53,350 --> 00:23:56,250 Dutch Schultz is not expecting anything, 410 00:23:56,390 --> 00:23:58,450 and they started blazing away. 411 00:23:58,460 --> 00:24:01,520 [gunshots blast] 412 00:24:01,630 --> 00:24:03,660 (Don) Three of Dutch's associates were killed, 413 00:24:03,730 --> 00:24:05,130 but Schultz didn't die. 414 00:24:05,130 --> 00:24:09,130 Though riddled with bullets, he lay in a hospital bed 415 00:24:09,130 --> 00:24:11,600 for more than a day before succumbing to his wounds. 416 00:24:11,640 --> 00:24:14,500 He never cooperated with the police. 417 00:24:16,940 --> 00:24:19,040 Dutch Schultz was 33 years old. 418 00:24:24,350 --> 00:24:26,350 By having Dutch Schultz murdered, 419 00:24:26,350 --> 00:24:29,450 the syndicate showed that insubordination would not be tolerated. 420 00:24:35,660 --> 00:24:37,630 Luciano and Lansky's dream of creating 421 00:24:37,660 --> 00:24:41,160 a nationwide American mob had come true. 422 00:24:41,230 --> 00:24:44,570 But their problems didn't end with Dutch Schultz. 423 00:24:44,700 --> 00:24:47,240 In fact, less than a year later, 424 00:24:47,340 --> 00:24:49,370 Luciano's challenges only got bigger. 425 00:24:49,370 --> 00:24:51,770 In 1936, 426 00:24:51,810 --> 00:24:54,240 he was arrested on charges related to prostitution 427 00:24:54,250 --> 00:24:57,510 and sentenced to 30 to 50 years in Federal prison. 428 00:24:57,550 --> 00:25:02,020 It seemed as if Luciano's luck had finally run out. 429 00:25:06,890 --> 00:25:08,860 Into the void stepped Meyer Lansky, 430 00:25:08,890 --> 00:25:11,530 who would become the New York mob's de facto leader 431 00:25:11,660 --> 00:25:13,900 and who would concoct an elaborate scheme 432 00:25:13,930 --> 00:25:16,130 to get his old friend Lucky out of jail. 433 00:25:16,200 --> 00:25:19,870 It was a secret deal that pitted the American mob 434 00:25:19,970 --> 00:25:21,870 against its toughest enemy yet-- 435 00:25:21,970 --> 00:25:24,510 Adolf Hitler and the Nazis. 436 00:25:28,110 --> 00:25:30,580 I'm at Manhattan's South Street Seaport, 437 00:25:30,610 --> 00:25:32,980 once the center of the city's vast waterfront. 438 00:25:33,050 --> 00:25:36,150 It's hard to envision this today, 439 00:25:36,250 --> 00:25:38,950 but back in 1942, the Fulton Fish Market, 440 00:25:39,020 --> 00:25:41,760 that building right there, was the bustling heart 441 00:25:41,830 --> 00:25:44,630 of the seaport and controlled by the mob. 442 00:25:44,760 --> 00:25:46,900 But how does a fish market figure 443 00:25:47,030 --> 00:25:49,060 into organized crime's war years? 444 00:25:51,440 --> 00:25:54,440 I'm meeting mob writer Eric Dezenhall at the Paris Cafe, 445 00:25:54,510 --> 00:25:57,310 a local institution that's overlooked the fish market 446 00:25:57,410 --> 00:26:00,010 and the waterfront for almost 150 years. 447 00:26:01,750 --> 00:26:04,050 Eric has the inside story on a top-secret alliance 448 00:26:04,150 --> 00:26:07,380 that turned gangsters into patriots. 449 00:26:09,420 --> 00:26:11,120 1941, you have Pearl Harbor. 450 00:26:11,190 --> 00:26:13,790 A month or two later, you have the largest 451 00:26:13,860 --> 00:26:17,460 cruise ship in the world blown up at Pier 88 New York, 452 00:26:17,590 --> 00:26:18,930 the Normandie . 453 00:26:21,630 --> 00:26:24,500 (Don) The burning ship lit up the sky for 12 hours 454 00:26:24,600 --> 00:26:27,170 before capsizing dockside. 455 00:26:27,200 --> 00:26:29,400 Hundreds of shocked New Yorkers 456 00:26:29,510 --> 00:26:31,740 filed past the wreckage. 457 00:26:31,840 --> 00:26:34,880 Thousands more Americans saw the devastation in news reels. 458 00:26:34,950 --> 00:26:38,280 Was it sabotage, an accident? 459 00:26:38,350 --> 00:26:39,920 Or something else? 460 00:26:40,020 --> 00:26:42,820 For the U.S. Government, the answer didn't matter. 461 00:26:42,820 --> 00:26:45,090 The Normandie was a wake-up call. 462 00:26:45,160 --> 00:26:48,460 Securing the country meant securing New York City's waterfront. 463 00:26:48,590 --> 00:26:51,490 Otherwise, the East Coast's busiest commercial port 464 00:26:51,560 --> 00:26:54,130 would become the homeland's Achilles heel. 465 00:26:56,330 --> 00:26:59,300 So, the idea of German sabotage was very real. 466 00:26:59,300 --> 00:27:03,100 The Roosevelt administration sent Naval agents 467 00:27:03,170 --> 00:27:05,910 down to the waterfront to try to get cooperation 468 00:27:06,040 --> 00:27:07,710 from the dock workers. 469 00:27:07,780 --> 00:27:10,850 The dock workers looked at men in uniform, and they went "Nope." 470 00:27:10,980 --> 00:27:12,180 Yeah. Not talking to you. 471 00:27:12,250 --> 00:27:14,980 So the government had a problem. 472 00:27:14,990 --> 00:27:17,850 They said if we need cooperation 473 00:27:17,990 --> 00:27:20,890 from the guys on the dock, how do we get it? Mmhm. 474 00:27:20,890 --> 00:27:23,660 (Don) The only way for cooperation was to get the boss's blessing. 475 00:27:23,690 --> 00:27:27,060 But the government had just put Lucky Luciano in jail, 476 00:27:27,060 --> 00:27:29,530 and he wasn't so eager to cooperate. 477 00:27:29,570 --> 00:27:31,030 So they went to Meyer Lansky. 478 00:27:33,440 --> 00:27:35,400 Meyer Lansky was an immigrant from Poland. 479 00:27:35,440 --> 00:27:38,140 The theory at the time was maybe the Jewish guys 480 00:27:38,180 --> 00:27:42,810 have greater motive to help you given what's happening with the Nazis. 481 00:27:42,950 --> 00:27:46,610 (Don) Meyer Lansky became the government's back channel to the mob. 482 00:27:46,650 --> 00:27:50,620 We're actually in a building that was the headquarters of this operation, aren't we? 483 00:27:50,650 --> 00:27:53,560 Some of the meetings that were held to try 484 00:27:53,690 --> 00:27:57,160 to recruit the mob by the Navy were held upstairs. 485 00:27:57,190 --> 00:28:00,100 (Don) But Lansky didn't get rich by making bad deals, 486 00:28:00,230 --> 00:28:03,830 and he knew that the ultimate order had to come from his boss, 487 00:28:03,970 --> 00:28:06,430 Lucky Luciano. 488 00:28:06,500 --> 00:28:09,100 So Lansky returns to the feds with a final message, 489 00:28:09,170 --> 00:28:12,970 and sure enough, the mob's cooperation wouldn't come free. 490 00:28:12,980 --> 00:28:15,510 What was ultimately in it for the mob 491 00:28:15,510 --> 00:28:18,810 was getting Luciano freed from jail. 492 00:28:18,950 --> 00:28:22,720 (Don) Lucky Luciano was willing to hand over the docks, 493 00:28:22,720 --> 00:28:24,850 but the price tag was his freedom. 494 00:28:24,860 --> 00:28:27,660 So would the feds let the world's most 495 00:28:27,720 --> 00:28:30,990 powerful mobster out of jail to help win the war? 496 00:28:36,520 --> 00:28:37,620 At the height of World War II, 497 00:28:37,720 --> 00:28:40,590 the U.S. Government was looking for any and all help 498 00:28:40,650 --> 00:28:44,320 in its fight to fend off the seemingly unstoppable Nazi forces. 499 00:28:44,360 --> 00:28:47,990 But how far were they willing to go? 500 00:28:48,000 --> 00:28:50,000 Would they join forces 501 00:28:50,000 --> 00:28:52,200 with the world's most dangerous mobsters? 502 00:28:54,470 --> 00:28:57,800 With Lucky Luciano in Federal prison, the mob was without its leader. 503 00:28:57,940 --> 00:29:01,370 Luciano controlled the New York docks, 504 00:29:01,410 --> 00:29:03,340 so his second-in-command, 505 00:29:03,440 --> 00:29:06,480 Meyer Lansky, offered the U.S. Government a deal. 506 00:29:06,510 --> 00:29:09,280 The mob would help secure the docks, 507 00:29:09,280 --> 00:29:12,780 but Luciano had to be set free. 508 00:29:15,290 --> 00:29:17,660 Eventually, the secret deal was done. 509 00:29:20,090 --> 00:29:22,830 Operation Underworld was born. 510 00:29:22,960 --> 00:29:24,960 So the mafia becomes the eyes and ears 511 00:29:25,000 --> 00:29:27,030 of the U.S. Government in the-- 512 00:29:27,170 --> 00:29:29,170 in the port of New York? Yes. 513 00:29:36,640 --> 00:29:40,180 (Don) As part of the deal, the mob pledged total assistance 514 00:29:40,250 --> 00:29:43,180 to the U.S. Navy, who guarded and used those ports. 515 00:29:45,320 --> 00:29:48,520 They also made sure there were no dock worker strikes during the war. 516 00:29:48,560 --> 00:29:52,260 And the benefits weren't only felt at home. 517 00:29:53,930 --> 00:29:56,190 For months leading up to the Allied invasion, 518 00:29:56,260 --> 00:29:58,960 Luciano's mafia contacts in Sicily 519 00:29:59,030 --> 00:30:01,170 kept watch on troop movements. 520 00:30:02,500 --> 00:30:05,870 When Allied Armies invaded Italy, they knew just where to find the enemy. 521 00:30:05,940 --> 00:30:08,870 Why haven't I heard about this until now? 522 00:30:08,980 --> 00:30:10,540 The government didn't want you to hear about it. 523 00:30:10,680 --> 00:30:13,280 In fact, nobody acknowledged it for many years. 524 00:30:13,350 --> 00:30:15,280 So shrouded in secrecy for years. 525 00:30:15,320 --> 00:30:17,480 And what about Lucky Luciano? 526 00:30:17,620 --> 00:30:20,490 Did the U.S. Government write a pass for one of 527 00:30:20,550 --> 00:30:22,950 the most ruthless mobsters of all time? 528 00:30:23,090 --> 00:30:24,520 Not exactly. 529 00:30:26,090 --> 00:30:29,160 After the war, Luciano was not set free as he had hoped. 530 00:30:29,160 --> 00:30:31,560 Instead, the man many considered 531 00:30:31,570 --> 00:30:33,700 to be the father of modern organized crime 532 00:30:33,700 --> 00:30:36,170 had his sentence commuted and was deported back 533 00:30:36,300 --> 00:30:39,200 to Italy, never to set foot on American soil again. 534 00:30:42,280 --> 00:30:44,240 But the intrigue didn't end with the operation. 535 00:30:44,310 --> 00:30:46,580 Like any good mob story, 536 00:30:46,650 --> 00:30:49,050 this one remains cloaked in mystery. 537 00:30:51,490 --> 00:30:54,690 Rumors have persisted that the Normandie wasn't the victim of espionage. 538 00:30:56,690 --> 00:31:00,360 Some say the ship was actually torched on orders from the mob. 539 00:31:04,700 --> 00:31:06,730 Indeed, in his memoir, Lucky Luciano 540 00:31:06,770 --> 00:31:08,670 took credit for the Normandie disaster. 541 00:31:08,740 --> 00:31:11,670 He suggested, in effect, 542 00:31:11,810 --> 00:31:14,940 that the mob set up and outsmarted the government. 543 00:31:18,010 --> 00:31:20,550 So did Lucky Luciano order a hit on an ocean liner 544 00:31:20,610 --> 00:31:23,180 to scare the government into doing business with him? 545 00:31:23,250 --> 00:31:26,180 We'll probably never know for sure. 546 00:31:28,760 --> 00:31:32,090 In 1945, the Japanese surrendered, and the war was over. 547 00:31:35,400 --> 00:31:37,630 So, did the mob help win World War II? 548 00:31:37,700 --> 00:31:40,570 You could certainly make a case for that. 549 00:31:44,640 --> 00:31:46,640 While exiled in Italy, 550 00:31:46,770 --> 00:31:49,370 Luciano attempted to run the mob from abroad, 551 00:31:51,480 --> 00:31:53,710 but post-war America was tough. 552 00:31:53,780 --> 00:31:56,250 So would the mob wither away, 553 00:31:56,320 --> 00:31:58,250 or could they find the next big racket, 554 00:31:58,350 --> 00:32:00,520 and if so, where? 555 00:32:00,550 --> 00:32:03,390 Turns out, the mob wasn't finished yet. 556 00:32:03,490 --> 00:32:06,520 The answer to their problems was gambling, 557 00:32:06,590 --> 00:32:09,790 and the place was Las Vegas. 558 00:32:09,860 --> 00:32:11,860 And Luciano and Lansky would call on an old friend 559 00:32:12,000 --> 00:32:14,000 from Five Points to pull it off. 560 00:32:14,130 --> 00:32:16,870 His name was Bugsy Siegel. 561 00:32:16,940 --> 00:32:20,340 Bugsy Siegel was in Los Angeles at this time 562 00:32:20,370 --> 00:32:22,740 running the rackets there. Mmhm. 563 00:32:22,810 --> 00:32:24,310 They send him to Las Vegas. 564 00:32:26,550 --> 00:32:29,380 (Don) Benjamin Siegel's criminal resume was tough to beat. 565 00:32:29,450 --> 00:32:31,350 By 1946, 566 00:32:31,480 --> 00:32:33,420 he'd made his mark in the underworld as a hitman, 567 00:32:33,490 --> 00:32:36,090 a bootlegger, and a ruthless gambler. 568 00:32:36,090 --> 00:32:38,990 But not unlike Capone, 569 00:32:38,990 --> 00:32:41,560 Bugsy was also attracted to the limelight, 570 00:32:41,630 --> 00:32:43,360 hobnobbing with Hollywood stars 571 00:32:43,500 --> 00:32:47,070 and dating a famous actress, Virginia Hill. 572 00:32:47,070 --> 00:32:50,170 But it was Siegel's violent temper 573 00:32:50,200 --> 00:32:53,040 that was his trademark, earning him a nickname 574 00:32:53,110 --> 00:32:56,640 that he hated--"Bugsy." 575 00:32:56,640 --> 00:33:00,110 He had killed people-- there was no question about that. 576 00:33:00,110 --> 00:33:02,710 He would just go "Bugsy," as they said, back in the day. 577 00:33:02,720 --> 00:33:05,450 You didn't want to be in his way when that happened. Right. 578 00:33:08,660 --> 00:33:11,060 (Don) Luciano and Lansky tasked Bugsy with overseeing 579 00:33:11,120 --> 00:33:12,990 the conversion of an old hotel 580 00:33:13,090 --> 00:33:16,800 into Las Vegas's first mob-owned casino-- 581 00:33:16,930 --> 00:33:18,930 the Flamingo. 582 00:33:19,000 --> 00:33:22,870 Within just a few months, the project was behind schedule, 583 00:33:22,900 --> 00:33:26,270 and Bugsy was millions of dollars in debt. 584 00:33:26,270 --> 00:33:30,010 I mean, he ended up spending more than 6 million dollars. Wow. 585 00:33:30,010 --> 00:33:33,210 (Don) And his bosses back East weren't happy. 586 00:33:36,550 --> 00:33:38,480 But despite all the pitfalls, 587 00:33:38,520 --> 00:33:41,220 Siegel finally opened the Flamingo's doors 588 00:33:41,290 --> 00:33:44,490 on December 26, 1946. 589 00:33:44,490 --> 00:33:46,690 But here's the problem-- he opens the casino 590 00:33:46,690 --> 00:33:49,030 before the hotel is done, so there's no rooms. 591 00:33:49,060 --> 00:33:51,630 (Don) The Flamingo is a flop. 592 00:33:51,630 --> 00:33:54,370 Bugsy decides, you know what? We'd better close this down. 593 00:33:54,400 --> 00:33:57,100 Start over, finish the hotel 594 00:33:57,100 --> 00:33:59,040 and reopen, and then everything will be great. 595 00:33:59,170 --> 00:34:02,040 And was it? Well, actually it was. 596 00:34:02,040 --> 00:34:04,980 (Don) The Flamingo's second opening was a smash, 597 00:34:05,050 --> 00:34:09,380 and the mob finally began seeing profits rolling in. 598 00:34:09,450 --> 00:34:11,520 Yet just two months later, Bugsy's dreams 599 00:34:11,590 --> 00:34:13,590 were brought to a screeching halt. 600 00:34:13,720 --> 00:34:17,260 On June 20, 1947, 601 00:34:17,260 --> 00:34:19,420 a hail of bullets rained down 602 00:34:19,460 --> 00:34:22,130 in the living room of Virginia Hill's L.A. home. 603 00:34:22,160 --> 00:34:25,200 Bugsy never had a chance. 604 00:34:25,230 --> 00:34:28,730 A gunman shoots him through the window and kills him. Wow! 605 00:34:28,740 --> 00:34:31,600 (Don) Bugsy's murder was never solved 606 00:34:31,740 --> 00:34:33,340 and to this day remains 607 00:34:33,370 --> 00:34:36,140 one of the mob's biggest uncracked cases. 608 00:34:36,180 --> 00:34:38,540 So was it a mob hit 609 00:34:38,580 --> 00:34:40,680 or something completely different? 610 00:34:40,810 --> 00:34:43,720 Who killed Bugsy Siegel? 611 00:34:50,120 --> 00:34:51,790 Of all the secrets kept by the American mob 612 00:34:51,860 --> 00:34:53,620 in the 20th century, 613 00:34:53,660 --> 00:34:56,230 there's one question that rises above the rest 614 00:34:56,330 --> 00:34:59,530 and centers on one of the mob's most iconic 615 00:34:59,570 --> 00:35:02,400 and flamboyant characters-- 616 00:35:02,400 --> 00:35:06,040 who killed Bugsy Siegel? 617 00:35:06,170 --> 00:35:08,070 Who killed Bugsy remains one of 618 00:35:08,210 --> 00:35:10,540 the most enduring of mob mysteries. 619 00:35:10,580 --> 00:35:12,210 The long accepted theory 620 00:35:12,350 --> 00:35:15,210 is that the New York mob put a hit on Bugsy 621 00:35:15,220 --> 00:35:17,480 for his overspending on the Flamingo, 622 00:35:17,550 --> 00:35:21,290 but was it really money or love 623 00:35:21,320 --> 00:35:23,490 that got Bugsy Siegel whacked? 624 00:35:27,030 --> 00:35:30,290 To try and find out, I'm heading to the El Cortez casino, 625 00:35:30,360 --> 00:35:33,500 a first generation Las Vegas landmark, 626 00:35:33,570 --> 00:35:37,570 to meet a man who claims to know the identity 627 00:35:37,570 --> 00:35:39,440 of Bugsy's true killer. 628 00:35:43,540 --> 00:35:47,050 Bernie Sindler was first introduced to the mob by a chance encounter 629 00:35:47,050 --> 00:35:49,910 on a train leaving Baltimore. 630 00:35:49,980 --> 00:35:53,180 On the train, a man says to me, 631 00:35:53,250 --> 00:35:56,120 "Hey kid, can you do some card tricks?" 632 00:35:56,160 --> 00:35:58,590 I said to him, "Yeah." 633 00:35:58,660 --> 00:36:00,990 He says, "My name is Meyer." 634 00:36:01,130 --> 00:36:03,260 (Don) Meyer Lansky took Bernie under his wing, 635 00:36:03,330 --> 00:36:05,730 introducing him to Bugsy Siegel. 636 00:36:05,800 --> 00:36:08,330 Sindler would have entree into the secret world 637 00:36:08,370 --> 00:36:10,440 of Vegas organized crime. 638 00:36:10,440 --> 00:36:15,540 So Bugsy Siegel was scary, fiery, mercurial. 639 00:36:15,680 --> 00:36:17,740 Scared the heck out of everybody, right? He did. 640 00:36:17,810 --> 00:36:20,910 Why didn't he scare you? I had no reason to be scared, 641 00:36:20,910 --> 00:36:22,950 so I wasn't scared. Okay. 642 00:36:23,080 --> 00:36:26,550 I didn't think about him, being as goofy as he was... 643 00:36:26,620 --> 00:36:28,420 to me he was fun. Okay. 644 00:36:28,420 --> 00:36:31,160 While Bernie has fond memories of these times, 645 00:36:31,220 --> 00:36:35,090 he was also around when news of Bugsy's killing hit the strip, 646 00:36:35,230 --> 00:36:38,900 and he doesn't buy the common knowledge about who pulled the trigger. 647 00:36:38,900 --> 00:36:41,030 The running theory is that Meyer Lansky 648 00:36:41,100 --> 00:36:43,100 had Bugsy Siegel offed 649 00:36:43,240 --> 00:36:46,270 because he was skimming from the Flamingo. 650 00:36:46,270 --> 00:36:49,510 Absolutely not! You couldn't just go kill Benny. 651 00:36:49,540 --> 00:36:51,380 You weren't allowed to do that. 652 00:36:51,510 --> 00:36:54,980 Bernie says there's only one little known theory that fits. 653 00:36:55,020 --> 00:36:57,120 I know who killed Bugsy. 654 00:36:57,250 --> 00:37:01,090 There is no doubt in my mind about who did it. 655 00:37:01,120 --> 00:37:05,190 Is it possible that one of the American mob's most infamous hits 656 00:37:05,260 --> 00:37:09,130 wasn't actually carried out by the mob at all? 657 00:37:15,180 --> 00:37:19,350 On June 20, 1947, infamous mobster Bugsy Siegel 658 00:37:19,360 --> 00:37:22,020 was murdered in the home of his famous girlfriend, 659 00:37:22,030 --> 00:37:24,160 actress Virginia Hill. 660 00:37:24,160 --> 00:37:26,830 Rumors at the time pinned the hit 661 00:37:26,960 --> 00:37:29,860 on Bugsy's mob associates and old friends, 662 00:37:29,900 --> 00:37:33,030 Meyer Lansky and Lucky Luciano. 663 00:37:33,040 --> 00:37:36,570 But that's not the only theory on who was responsible for Bugsy's death. 664 00:37:39,880 --> 00:37:42,210 Tell me your theory of this. 665 00:37:42,210 --> 00:37:44,610 I claim that 666 00:37:44,680 --> 00:37:46,880 Virginia Hill's brother 667 00:37:46,880 --> 00:37:50,450 killed Benny Siegel. Wow! 668 00:37:50,520 --> 00:37:54,090 (Don) Virginia Hill's brother, Chick, was a part-time gopher for Bugsy. 669 00:37:54,090 --> 00:37:57,590 What could make him want to kill his sister's main man? 670 00:37:57,630 --> 00:38:01,260 According to Bernie, it was because Bugsy was no gentleman. 671 00:38:01,400 --> 00:38:03,330 He was abusive. Okay. 672 00:38:03,400 --> 00:38:06,070 And Virginia told her brother about it, 673 00:38:06,100 --> 00:38:08,200 because I happened to be there and hear it. 674 00:38:08,340 --> 00:38:11,810 He says, "I'm gonna kill that son of a bitch." 675 00:38:11,840 --> 00:38:16,080 (Don) And crime scene evidence may back Bernie up. 676 00:38:16,110 --> 00:38:19,750 Police and press accounts at the time all agree 677 00:38:19,820 --> 00:38:21,820 that the bullets that killed Bugsy Siegel 678 00:38:21,850 --> 00:38:25,820 were fired by a rifle aimed from outside his girlfriend's home. 679 00:38:25,860 --> 00:38:29,420 Moreover, Siegel was killed by a military rifle, 680 00:38:29,560 --> 00:38:31,960 and Chick Hill was a combat marksman. 681 00:38:32,000 --> 00:38:36,160 Chick Hill was never officially considered a suspect, 682 00:38:36,230 --> 00:38:38,700 and within a few years of Bugsy's murder, 683 00:38:38,700 --> 00:38:42,270 he vanished seemingly into thin air. 684 00:38:42,400 --> 00:38:44,370 So this is still an unsolved murder, isn't it? 685 00:38:44,410 --> 00:38:47,180 It's officially an unsolved murder. Huh. 686 00:38:48,910 --> 00:38:52,850 Benjamin Bugsy Siegel didn't live to see Las Vegas's rise 687 00:38:52,920 --> 00:38:56,050 into the city of mob-run casino hotels for which 688 00:38:56,120 --> 00:38:58,390 his beloved Flamingo was the prototype, 689 00:38:58,460 --> 00:39:01,660 nor did he share in the vast riches 690 00:39:01,730 --> 00:39:03,660 the city produced, 691 00:39:03,730 --> 00:39:07,330 but the mob's grip on Las Vegas wouldn't last either. 692 00:39:07,360 --> 00:39:11,070 Billionaire investors coveted the goldmine 693 00:39:11,130 --> 00:39:13,330 that Bugsy Siegel had unearthed. 694 00:39:15,270 --> 00:39:18,740 Soon, corporate entities were snapping up mob-owned casinos, 695 00:39:18,740 --> 00:39:22,610 tearing them down, and replacing them with mega resorts. 696 00:39:22,610 --> 00:39:25,880 Between the new competition 697 00:39:26,020 --> 00:39:28,620 and continued heat from law enforcement, 698 00:39:28,620 --> 00:39:31,920 the mob's Las Vegas glory days were soon over. 699 00:39:35,630 --> 00:39:38,630 So too were the careers of its prime architects. 700 00:39:38,700 --> 00:39:41,430 After a quarter century, 701 00:39:41,430 --> 00:39:43,970 those who created the American mob as we know it 702 00:39:43,970 --> 00:39:47,840 inevitably began to die off, 703 00:39:47,940 --> 00:39:50,840 taking their tightly kept secrets with them to the grave. 704 00:39:55,310 --> 00:39:57,850 After being snagged on tax evasion and imprisoned 705 00:39:57,910 --> 00:40:00,110 throughout most of the 1930s, 706 00:40:00,180 --> 00:40:03,380 Al Capone never recaptured the glory of the 1920s. 707 00:40:03,420 --> 00:40:06,590 He spent his later years battling the effects of 708 00:40:06,720 --> 00:40:09,990 syphilis and gonorrhea, and in 1947, 709 00:40:09,990 --> 00:40:12,990 he died a shell of his former self. 710 00:40:17,570 --> 00:40:19,800 After the mob lost its grip on Vegas, 711 00:40:19,840 --> 00:40:22,070 Meyer Lansky opened up casinos in Cuba, 712 00:40:22,210 --> 00:40:25,940 where he tried to set up a new home for the mob, 713 00:40:25,980 --> 00:40:29,940 but that dream ended when Fidel Castro's revolution 714 00:40:29,980 --> 00:40:32,880 drove Lansky and all of the mob money out. 715 00:40:34,780 --> 00:40:38,290 Meyer Lansky would go on to live a mostly quiet life in Florida, 716 00:40:38,290 --> 00:40:42,320 finally dying of lung cancer in 1983 at the age of 80. 717 00:40:45,830 --> 00:40:48,900 Upon his exile to Italy, Charles "Lucky" Luciano 718 00:40:48,930 --> 00:40:51,500 continued to try and run the mob from afar 719 00:40:51,500 --> 00:40:54,230 but without success. 720 00:40:54,270 --> 00:40:57,640 Eventually, a new generation of American mobsters 721 00:40:57,710 --> 00:41:00,570 led by Vito Genovese and Luciano's 722 00:41:00,580 --> 00:41:03,310 eventual replacement, Carlo Gambino, 723 00:41:03,450 --> 00:41:07,450 muscled in, and by 1959, Lucky was out of the game. 724 00:41:10,650 --> 00:41:13,320 On January 1962, 725 00:41:13,360 --> 00:41:16,320 Luciano died of a heart attack in the Naples airport. 726 00:41:16,390 --> 00:41:18,690 He was 64 years old. 727 00:41:27,340 --> 00:41:29,070 While Lucky Luciano and Meyer Lansky 728 00:41:29,170 --> 00:41:32,410 may have had dreams of eventually taking the mob legit, 729 00:41:32,440 --> 00:41:35,880 they could never shake off their Five Points roots. 730 00:41:35,910 --> 00:41:38,680 Greed, lust for fame, violence, 731 00:41:38,720 --> 00:41:41,750 the same sins that made them household names 732 00:41:41,880 --> 00:41:44,220 ultimately doomed them. 733 00:41:44,220 --> 00:41:47,820 And when their era ended, so did the mob as we know best. 734 00:41:47,890 --> 00:41:50,960 So, does organized crime still exist? 735 00:41:51,030 --> 00:41:53,890 Of course, but no one before or since 736 00:41:53,900 --> 00:41:56,160 has ever done it quite the same. 736 00:41:57,305 --> 00:42:57,864 Do you want subtitles for any video? -=[ ai.OpenSubtitles.com ]=-