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

1 00:00:01,903 --> 00:00:02,935 In the late 19th century, 2 00:00:02,971 --> 00:00:05,204 the immigrant ghettos of New York gave birth 3 00:00:05,339 --> 00:00:08,140 to a secret empire that was called the mob. 4 00:00:08,209 --> 00:00:12,344 Built on an insatiable appetite of wealth and power, 5 00:00:12,413 --> 00:00:15,948 the mob grew in the shadows and then spread coast to coast. 6 00:00:18,686 --> 00:00:21,887 But how much do we really know about the mob? 7 00:00:21,923 --> 00:00:24,823 And can we untangle its web of murderous rivalries, 8 00:00:24,859 --> 00:00:29,161 criminal conspiracies and unsolved mysteries? 9 00:00:29,230 --> 00:00:31,497 From covert bunkers for bootleg liquor, 10 00:00:31,632 --> 00:00:34,367 to clandestine deals between iconic gangsters, 11 00:00:34,369 --> 00:00:38,170 to facing off with Hitler to help the U.S. win World War II, 12 00:00:38,206 --> 00:00:42,641 new details are emerging on some of the most incredible stories 13 00:00:42,644 --> 00:00:45,778 that the mob didn't want anyone to know. 14 00:00:45,913 --> 00:00:47,580 Why haven't I heard about this until now? 15 00:00:47,582 --> 00:00:49,382 The government didn't want you to hear about it. 16 00:00:49,517 --> 00:00:51,984 I'm on a quest to uncover the hidden truths 17 00:00:51,986 --> 00:00:55,120 still being kept by one of the world's most secretive 18 00:00:55,156 --> 00:00:57,690 and dangerous organizations. 19 00:01:02,196 --> 00:01:05,197 I'm Don Wildman. I've explored the world's greatest mysteries, 20 00:01:05,266 --> 00:01:08,467 examined rare artifacts and epic monuments. 21 00:01:08,503 --> 00:01:10,269 That is unbelievable. 22 00:01:10,338 --> 00:01:12,805 Now, I'm digging deeper into some of the most 23 00:01:12,807 --> 00:01:15,207 perplexing and famous cases in history. 24 00:01:15,209 --> 00:01:18,210 My goal, to get closer to the truth. 25 00:01:18,346 --> 00:01:20,346 Let's burn this place down. Burn it down. 26 00:01:21,983 --> 00:01:24,683 On this special episode of "Mysteries at the Museum: 27 00:01:24,752 --> 00:01:26,852 American Mobster." 28 00:01:28,000 --> 00:01:34,074 Watch Online Movies and Series for FREE www.osdb.link/lm 29 00:01:46,240 --> 00:01:49,308 (Don) The mafia, La Cosa Nostra, "The Black Hand." 30 00:01:49,443 --> 00:01:52,511 For over 100 years, the American mob 31 00:01:52,646 --> 00:01:54,647 has been known by many different names. 32 00:01:54,782 --> 00:01:58,250 But how much do we really understand about this 33 00:01:58,286 --> 00:02:02,188 shadowy organization known for its absolute secrecy? 34 00:02:02,190 --> 00:02:04,457 What is the mob? 35 00:02:07,929 --> 00:02:10,929 Popular knowledge is that the mob began in Sicily. 36 00:02:10,965 --> 00:02:13,766 Indeed, it was there that Italian criminals 37 00:02:13,868 --> 00:02:16,268 found strength in numbers and organized 38 00:02:16,404 --> 00:02:18,737 their illegal activities to evade the law, 39 00:02:18,806 --> 00:02:21,206 and more importantly, make money. 40 00:02:21,242 --> 00:02:23,609 For years, the mafia thrived in Italy, 41 00:02:23,744 --> 00:02:26,011 but by the late 1800s, 42 00:02:26,047 --> 00:02:28,146 a new wave of Italian immigrants 43 00:02:28,182 --> 00:02:31,016 brought the criminal enterprise to America. 44 00:02:31,085 --> 00:02:35,020 It was here that the mafia would come to lead 45 00:02:35,089 --> 00:02:38,223 a nationwide crime syndicate whose influence stretched 46 00:02:38,292 --> 00:02:41,293 from the New York ghettos all the way to the White House. 47 00:02:43,764 --> 00:02:46,899 But what most people think they know about the mob is wrong. 48 00:02:46,968 --> 00:02:48,968 Take Al Capone, 49 00:02:49,103 --> 00:02:51,103 when most people think of the American mob 50 00:02:51,139 --> 00:02:54,040 they think of the man the media dubbed "Scarface." 51 00:02:54,175 --> 00:02:56,909 But what most people don't know 52 00:02:56,978 --> 00:02:59,978 is that while he was the most famous gangster in America, 53 00:03:00,048 --> 00:03:02,714 Al Capone wasn't the most powerful. 54 00:03:02,750 --> 00:03:04,116 Far from it. 55 00:03:04,118 --> 00:03:06,785 In fact, Scarface answered to someone else. 56 00:03:06,854 --> 00:03:10,756 So, who were these secret mob power brokers? 57 00:03:13,828 --> 00:03:15,794 To truly understand the American mob, 58 00:03:15,830 --> 00:03:18,063 you have to go back to the very beginning, 59 00:03:18,099 --> 00:03:20,766 right here, to a place called Five Points. 60 00:03:20,901 --> 00:03:24,470 Looking around today, you'd never know it, 61 00:03:24,605 --> 00:03:28,607 but this is the birthplace of organized crime in America. 62 00:03:28,743 --> 00:03:33,879 Here the heads of state of New York's most violent gangs joined forces. 63 00:03:33,948 --> 00:03:37,516 The result was the dreaded Five Points Gang. 64 00:03:40,888 --> 00:03:42,955 Think of Five Points as a training ground 65 00:03:42,957 --> 00:03:46,692 for what will become America's most iconic and dangerous mobsters. 66 00:03:46,761 --> 00:03:49,428 Its streets were a cacophony of foreign languages, 67 00:03:49,563 --> 00:03:53,164 a blend of mostly Italian, Irish, and Jewish immigrants 68 00:03:53,201 --> 00:03:56,368 living in tightly packed streets and alleyways, 69 00:03:56,404 --> 00:04:00,172 slum conditions with one of the highest murder rates in the world. 70 00:04:00,241 --> 00:04:04,110 It's astonishing how many infamous criminals got their start 71 00:04:04,245 --> 00:04:07,312 in the two decades the gang ruled lower New York. 72 00:04:07,348 --> 00:04:10,782 But, two members of the Five Points Gang 73 00:04:10,818 --> 00:04:14,787 would rise above the others and help create the American mob. 74 00:04:14,922 --> 00:04:19,358 Their names are Meyer Lansky and Charles "Lucky" Luciano. 75 00:04:23,197 --> 00:04:25,397 Charles "Lucky" Luciano was a born leader. 76 00:04:25,466 --> 00:04:29,535 From an early age, his charisma, charm, and guile were obvious. 77 00:04:29,604 --> 00:04:33,072 After coming from Italy when he was 9 years old, 78 00:04:33,207 --> 00:04:37,076 he found himself at home on the rough and tumble streets of Five Points. 79 00:04:37,211 --> 00:04:40,546 By the time he was 15, he had dropped out of school. 80 00:04:40,681 --> 00:04:43,749 He made money by offering to Jewish youngsters protection 81 00:04:43,884 --> 00:04:46,952 from Italian and Irish gangs for 10 cents a week. 82 00:04:46,988 --> 00:04:49,488 It was an ingenious racket that showed how 83 00:04:49,623 --> 00:04:52,091 the future mob boss thought outside the box. 84 00:04:55,763 --> 00:04:58,564 It's also how he came to meet Meyer Lansky. 85 00:05:01,369 --> 00:05:04,436 Lansky came to America in 1911 from what is now Belarus 86 00:05:04,572 --> 00:05:08,107 and immediately fell in with the Jewish gangs on the lower east side. 87 00:05:10,378 --> 00:05:12,778 His instant friendship with Luciano would pay dividends. 88 00:05:12,847 --> 00:05:15,647 If Luciano gave the mob its swagger, 89 00:05:15,683 --> 00:05:19,184 Lansky lent his acute deal-making and gambling prowess. 90 00:05:19,186 --> 00:05:22,655 While he kept everything close to the vest, 91 00:05:22,657 --> 00:05:25,658 it is believed that he would go on to become 92 00:05:25,793 --> 00:05:27,626 one of the richest gangsters in history. 93 00:05:31,666 --> 00:05:33,999 These guys embraced the code of silence 94 00:05:34,068 --> 00:05:37,603 and no one took that more to heart than Luciano. 95 00:05:37,605 --> 00:05:41,206 After immigrating to the U.S. from Italy in 1906, 96 00:05:41,275 --> 00:05:43,808 Luciano moved to this walkup tenement 97 00:05:43,844 --> 00:05:45,944 on New York's Lower East Side. 98 00:05:45,980 --> 00:05:48,547 It was here he began running with the Five Points Gang 99 00:05:48,549 --> 00:05:50,783 and earned the nickname "Lucky." 100 00:05:55,689 --> 00:05:59,024 By the time he was 23, Luciano had outwitted or killed 101 00:05:59,159 --> 00:06:02,828 so many rivals in town that he became a major player 102 00:06:02,897 --> 00:06:04,630 in the New York crime scene. 103 00:06:11,172 --> 00:06:13,705 But by the 1920s, Luciano's gang 104 00:06:13,741 --> 00:06:16,241 had become more than just violent thugs. 105 00:06:16,277 --> 00:06:18,444 They'd expanded into the prostitution, 106 00:06:18,446 --> 00:06:20,912 drugs, and extortion rackets. 107 00:06:20,948 --> 00:06:23,448 Luciano and Lansky had a vision. 108 00:06:23,484 --> 00:06:25,784 They wanted to turn the mob into 109 00:06:25,786 --> 00:06:28,053 the most powerful force in the U.S. 110 00:06:28,122 --> 00:06:29,921 and run it like a corporation, 111 00:06:29,991 --> 00:06:33,325 but their lofty ambitions could only carry them so far. 112 00:06:33,460 --> 00:06:36,662 Ironically, it was an act by the U.S. Government 113 00:06:36,797 --> 00:06:38,664 that would introduce to the mob 114 00:06:38,799 --> 00:06:40,666 the most lucrative racket yet. 115 00:06:40,768 --> 00:06:43,068 Bootlegging. 116 00:06:43,104 --> 00:06:45,404 In the early 1900s, 117 00:06:45,406 --> 00:06:48,206 alcoholism was a hotly debated topic. 118 00:06:48,276 --> 00:06:50,743 And America was its moral battleground. 119 00:06:50,745 --> 00:06:54,145 In 1919, Congress passed the Volstead Act, 120 00:06:54,181 --> 00:06:56,882 and on January 17, 1920, 121 00:06:56,884 --> 00:06:58,717 Prohibition was born. 122 00:07:00,688 --> 00:07:02,687 Overnight, drinking, selling, 123 00:07:02,723 --> 00:07:05,491 and making alcohol became illegal. 124 00:07:05,626 --> 00:07:07,693 But the laws were widely ignored, 125 00:07:07,762 --> 00:07:10,195 and secret establishments called speakeasies 126 00:07:10,231 --> 00:07:13,165 began popping up in American cities. 127 00:07:13,167 --> 00:07:17,469 Illicit alcohol became big business, and it was everywhere. 128 00:07:21,242 --> 00:07:22,908 This played right into the hands 129 00:07:22,977 --> 00:07:26,378 of the mob and power brokers like Lansky and Luciano. 130 00:07:26,480 --> 00:07:28,514 By muscling in on labor unions 131 00:07:28,516 --> 00:07:32,183 and bribing local politicians, they already had a grip 132 00:07:32,219 --> 00:07:34,720 on New York's waterfront and were able to dock 133 00:07:34,855 --> 00:07:38,791 enormous ships full of alcohol from other countries with ease. 134 00:07:38,793 --> 00:07:41,627 But it didn't stop there. 135 00:07:44,064 --> 00:07:46,999 While some of that alcohol stayed in New York, 136 00:07:47,134 --> 00:07:50,669 the rest was distributed across the country. 137 00:07:50,738 --> 00:07:53,739 And the mob got a cut of it all. 138 00:07:57,544 --> 00:08:00,278 But there were growing pains, and soon violent wars 139 00:08:00,348 --> 00:08:03,482 between rival mobsters erupted in major U.S. cities, 140 00:08:03,484 --> 00:08:06,217 creating a lot of unwanted attention 141 00:08:06,253 --> 00:08:09,354 from both the news media and the police. 142 00:08:09,423 --> 00:08:12,891 So, in 1929 Luciano, Lansky, and the heads 143 00:08:13,027 --> 00:08:15,827 of all the major crime families from around the country 144 00:08:15,863 --> 00:08:17,997 converged on Atlantic City, New Jersey. 145 00:08:20,901 --> 00:08:23,435 The first order of business was their biggest headache... 146 00:08:23,471 --> 00:08:27,940 his name, Al Capone. 147 00:08:31,212 --> 00:08:35,247 Born in Brooklyn, Al Capone had been an early member of the Five Points Gang. 148 00:08:35,316 --> 00:08:39,184 Known for his quick temper and brute force, 149 00:08:39,319 --> 00:08:42,054 Capone was always in the middle of the action. 150 00:08:42,123 --> 00:08:44,856 An early dust up left him with a prominent knife wound 151 00:08:44,925 --> 00:08:48,060 on his left cheek and earned him the nickname "Scarface." 152 00:08:48,129 --> 00:08:51,730 In the early '20s, he moved to Chicago 153 00:08:51,865 --> 00:08:53,999 and became a central figure in the bootlegging 154 00:08:54,134 --> 00:08:56,268 and prostitution rings there. 155 00:08:56,403 --> 00:08:59,271 But what most people don't know is that Al Capone's love 156 00:08:59,340 --> 00:09:01,406 of the spotlight and violent temper 157 00:09:01,409 --> 00:09:03,275 would actually put him at odds 158 00:09:03,344 --> 00:09:06,678 with Lucky Luciano and place his life in danger. 159 00:09:18,826 --> 00:09:21,493 I'm heading to The Mob Museum in Las Vegas 160 00:09:21,529 --> 00:09:24,163 to find out about this little known face off 161 00:09:24,298 --> 00:09:27,099 and learn a little more about the mob war zone 162 00:09:27,234 --> 00:09:28,901 that was Prohibition. 163 00:09:33,474 --> 00:09:35,374 It was pretty ugly in Chicago. 164 00:09:35,509 --> 00:09:39,510 [gunfire blasts] 165 00:09:39,547 --> 00:09:40,845 They called them the "Beer Wars." 166 00:09:40,881 --> 00:09:43,048 There was all kinds of shooting going on, 167 00:09:43,050 --> 00:09:46,385 famously depicted in movies with Tommy guns being shot 168 00:09:46,387 --> 00:09:49,588 out of the sides of cars racing down narrow streets. Yeah. 169 00:09:49,657 --> 00:09:53,458 (Don) The body count grew until it came down to just two sides. 170 00:09:53,527 --> 00:09:57,729 There was no bigger rivalry than between Al Capone's outfit 171 00:09:57,731 --> 00:10:00,632 and the North Side Irish Gang. 172 00:10:00,668 --> 00:10:03,134 (Don) The tipping point came when three men 173 00:10:03,170 --> 00:10:05,070 walked into a neighborhood garage 174 00:10:05,139 --> 00:10:08,473 looking for North Side gang boss, George "Bugs" Moran. 175 00:10:08,509 --> 00:10:12,878 The date was February 14, 1929, 176 00:10:13,013 --> 00:10:15,413 Valentine's Day. 177 00:10:15,449 --> 00:10:20,886 On Valentine's Day, these men from Bugs Moran's group assemble in this garage. 178 00:10:21,021 --> 00:10:22,354 And what happens then? 179 00:10:22,489 --> 00:10:24,890 Three men walk in, two of them are dressed up 180 00:10:25,025 --> 00:10:27,492 as police officers, and these--they say, 181 00:10:27,494 --> 00:10:28,960 "Hey, we're the police," you know, 182 00:10:28,963 --> 00:10:30,796 "Up against the wall." Okay. 183 00:10:30,898 --> 00:10:33,632 And the Bugs Moran people are completely unsuspecting, right? 184 00:10:33,701 --> 00:10:34,933 They've got their backs turned. 185 00:10:35,068 --> 00:10:37,168 They're leaning against this brick wall. 186 00:10:37,204 --> 00:10:38,737 They didn't know it was coming. 187 00:10:41,242 --> 00:10:45,043 (Don) What happened next would go down as Prohibition's most notorious blood bath. 188 00:10:45,079 --> 00:10:49,047 [gunfire blasts] 189 00:10:49,183 --> 00:10:50,816 The Saint Valentine's Day Massacre. 190 00:10:55,322 --> 00:10:58,523 In a heartbeat, seven members of Bugs Moran's North Side gang 191 00:10:58,659 --> 00:11:02,127 lay dead and dying at the foot of a bullet-riddled brick wall. 192 00:11:02,262 --> 00:11:05,664 The Saint Valentine's Day Massacre became 193 00:11:05,666 --> 00:11:08,600 the most infamous execution in U.S. crime history 194 00:11:08,669 --> 00:11:11,203 and changed the American mob forever. 195 00:11:16,944 --> 00:11:18,610 This is the massacre wall. 196 00:11:18,612 --> 00:11:20,212 Wow, really? 197 00:11:20,214 --> 00:11:21,480 That's the wall itself? 198 00:11:21,615 --> 00:11:22,881 For the Roaring Twenties reporters, 199 00:11:22,950 --> 00:11:26,417 the Saint Valentine's Day Massacre was the ultimate headline. 200 00:11:26,453 --> 00:11:30,822 This was the biggest crime story of 1929, 30, and 31. 201 00:11:30,958 --> 00:11:32,757 Wow, okay. 202 00:11:32,826 --> 00:11:34,492 (Don) Though he maintained his innocence, 203 00:11:34,562 --> 00:11:36,694 Al Capone became the lead suspect. 204 00:11:36,730 --> 00:11:40,632 Before the massacre, the press had played up Capone 205 00:11:40,701 --> 00:11:42,901 as if he was a people's hero. 206 00:11:42,970 --> 00:11:46,371 He became a celebrity. Everybody knew Al Capone's name. 207 00:11:46,440 --> 00:11:49,040 Everybody pretty much knew what he was up to. 208 00:11:49,109 --> 00:11:53,245 Now, the same newspapers that featured Capone kissing babies 209 00:11:53,380 --> 00:11:56,114 and signing autographs were out for his blood. 210 00:11:56,183 --> 00:12:00,652 Al Capone's name came up again and again and again. 211 00:12:00,654 --> 00:12:04,722 To make matters worse, Capone's main rival, 212 00:12:04,758 --> 00:12:07,859 Bugs Moran, wasn't even at the scene of the crime. 213 00:12:07,861 --> 00:12:11,062 Bugs Moran was actually late for the meeting. 214 00:12:11,131 --> 00:12:14,933 (Don) Negative publicity from the massacre was unprecedented. 215 00:12:15,002 --> 00:12:18,537 The blow back reached all the way to the White House. 216 00:12:21,809 --> 00:12:25,610 Herbert Hoover, the president, said, "We need to get Capone." 217 00:12:25,679 --> 00:12:28,546 (Don) From the start of Capone's meteoric rise, 218 00:12:28,615 --> 00:12:31,216 Lucky Luciano had taken a dim view 219 00:12:31,218 --> 00:12:34,586 of a major earner like Scarface becoming a household name. 220 00:12:38,125 --> 00:12:40,892 Now, Capone was the media's number one suspect 221 00:12:40,928 --> 00:12:43,495 in the biggest murder story in the country. 222 00:12:43,497 --> 00:12:45,564 This is the Roaring Twenties. 223 00:12:45,699 --> 00:12:47,165 Yeah. The birth of media. 224 00:12:47,201 --> 00:12:48,834 The newspapers are going crazy. 225 00:12:48,836 --> 00:12:51,370 It was terrible for organized crime. 226 00:12:51,372 --> 00:12:55,573 (Don) With the mob now at the center of a media firestorm, 227 00:12:55,609 --> 00:12:59,711 Lucky Luciano had a decision to make. 228 00:13:02,416 --> 00:13:04,049 What to do with Al Capone. 229 00:13:15,146 --> 00:13:17,146 In May of 1929, 230 00:13:17,148 --> 00:13:20,015 the leaders of organized crime from all over the U.S. 231 00:13:20,051 --> 00:13:22,618 met in Atlantic City, New Jersey. 232 00:13:22,620 --> 00:13:26,556 Their goal was to make money, but violent bootleg wars 233 00:13:26,691 --> 00:13:29,759 between crime families had gotten out of hand. 234 00:13:29,894 --> 00:13:31,761 The biggest and bloodiest mess of them all 235 00:13:31,896 --> 00:13:34,696 was what was coined the Saint Valentine's Day Massacre. 236 00:13:34,732 --> 00:13:38,634 The high-profile mob hit rocked Chicago 237 00:13:38,703 --> 00:13:40,969 and made well known gangster, Al Capone, 238 00:13:41,005 --> 00:13:43,439 public enemy number one. 239 00:13:43,508 --> 00:13:45,441 And the head of the powerful New York mob, 240 00:13:45,443 --> 00:13:47,576 Lucky Luciano, wasn't happy. 241 00:13:47,645 --> 00:13:50,513 The bad press meant more scrutiny from the FBI, 242 00:13:50,515 --> 00:13:52,581 and that was bad for business. 243 00:13:52,617 --> 00:13:55,518 So what could be done about Al Capone? 244 00:14:02,060 --> 00:14:05,928 A few weeks later, Al Capone was arrested in Philadelphia on gun charges. 245 00:14:05,964 --> 00:14:09,065 The media rejoiced. 246 00:14:09,067 --> 00:14:11,000 Justice was finally being served. 247 00:14:11,135 --> 00:14:13,402 Or was it? 248 00:14:13,537 --> 00:14:17,139 In fact, what no one knew was that the arresting officer 249 00:14:17,175 --> 00:14:20,076 was friendly to the mob and ultimately answered to 250 00:14:20,211 --> 00:14:23,379 the East Coast's biggest crime boss, Lucky Luciano. 251 00:14:26,484 --> 00:14:30,218 Was this an elaborate plan for the mob to enact its own form of punishment? 252 00:14:30,255 --> 00:14:32,722 Would this be the end of Al Capone? 253 00:14:36,494 --> 00:14:38,427 My search for the whole story has led me here, 254 00:14:38,429 --> 00:14:41,163 to Philadelphia's Eastern State Penitentiary, 255 00:14:41,199 --> 00:14:44,634 the setting of a forgotten chapter in the life of Al Capone. 256 00:14:47,071 --> 00:14:49,438 Just three months after the Saint Valentine's Day Massacre, 257 00:14:49,573 --> 00:14:51,974 Capone was arrested and sentenced to a year 258 00:14:52,109 --> 00:14:54,310 inside these now decaying walls. 259 00:14:57,848 --> 00:15:00,917 But was Scarface locked up or holed up? 260 00:15:04,155 --> 00:15:06,389 Immediately after the Saint Valentine's Day Massacre, 261 00:15:06,524 --> 00:15:08,791 Capone's bad publicity was getting in the way 262 00:15:08,926 --> 00:15:10,793 of the mob making money, 263 00:15:10,928 --> 00:15:13,128 and for Lucky Luciano, that was unacceptable. 264 00:15:13,197 --> 00:15:16,132 For most mobsters on the wrong side of Luciano, 265 00:15:16,267 --> 00:15:17,867 that would be a death sentence. 266 00:15:21,472 --> 00:15:24,073 But Al Capone wasn't most mobsters. 267 00:15:24,142 --> 00:15:28,077 That's amazing. 268 00:15:28,146 --> 00:15:30,079 How about this, huh? 269 00:15:30,148 --> 00:15:33,115 A nice little home away from home for a crime kingpin. 270 00:15:35,353 --> 00:15:37,620 It turns out that at the Atlantic City conference 271 00:15:37,755 --> 00:15:40,222 Luciano and Capone would come face to face. 272 00:15:40,291 --> 00:15:42,491 Luciano and the other crime bosses 273 00:15:42,560 --> 00:15:44,960 had decided that while Capone was important 274 00:15:45,096 --> 00:15:48,830 to their Chicago operations, something had to be done. 275 00:15:48,866 --> 00:15:52,101 So they made a deal, if Capone went to jail for a while 276 00:15:52,103 --> 00:15:55,037 and stayed out of the papers maybe the heat would die down. 277 00:15:55,039 --> 00:15:58,374 His punishment would be in name only. 278 00:15:58,443 --> 00:16:01,510 In fact, it wasn't a bad setup for the man 279 00:16:01,645 --> 00:16:04,046 the media called "Scarface," and he knew it. 280 00:16:04,082 --> 00:16:07,115 I mean, this is really quite a comfortable little apartment. 281 00:16:07,151 --> 00:16:10,453 Bigger than some I've lived in in my life. 282 00:16:10,588 --> 00:16:13,255 Capone agreed, and with the help 283 00:16:13,391 --> 00:16:16,525 of a few mob-friendly prison guards, waited out his year-long 284 00:16:16,594 --> 00:16:19,528 slap on the wrist in this gilded cage. 285 00:16:22,367 --> 00:16:24,332 Sure enough, the strategy worked. 286 00:16:24,369 --> 00:16:26,935 With Capone locked up, the media frenzy around 287 00:16:27,005 --> 00:16:29,271 the Saint Valentine's Day Massacre died down. 288 00:16:29,406 --> 00:16:33,075 And soon, the mob was back at it, 289 00:16:33,077 --> 00:16:34,977 making money hand over fist. 290 00:16:37,014 --> 00:16:39,481 For the next two years, Luciano and Lansky 291 00:16:39,550 --> 00:16:41,550 worked on achieving their dream 292 00:16:41,586 --> 00:16:43,619 of creating one true American mob. 293 00:16:43,688 --> 00:16:46,755 By 1931, along with the heads 294 00:16:46,791 --> 00:16:48,758 of the four other major U.S. crime families, 295 00:16:48,893 --> 00:16:52,161 they formed the first nationwide crime syndicate, 296 00:16:52,230 --> 00:16:54,497 and Luciano was the chairman. 297 00:16:59,703 --> 00:17:03,105 But if seamlessly managing organized crime across the U.S. 298 00:17:03,174 --> 00:17:06,709 was the goal, Dutch Schultz, would be the syndicate's 299 00:17:06,711 --> 00:17:09,245 first true test. 300 00:17:09,247 --> 00:17:11,981 Schultz was a master of secrecy and the most prolific 301 00:17:12,116 --> 00:17:15,618 and successful gangster that most people have never heard of. 302 00:17:23,394 --> 00:17:26,661 In the 1920s, bootlegged liquor was big business. 303 00:17:26,698 --> 00:17:29,665 Demand was sky high in the cities. 304 00:17:29,667 --> 00:17:31,934 So supply presented a challenge. 305 00:17:32,003 --> 00:17:35,404 How would the mob manufacture enough alcohol 306 00:17:35,473 --> 00:17:39,408 to keep the booze flowing in thousands of speakeasies 307 00:17:39,410 --> 00:17:40,943 from New York to Chicago? 308 00:17:43,480 --> 00:17:46,081 The answer was expert bootleggers, 309 00:17:46,150 --> 00:17:48,950 and none were better and more feared than Dutch Schultz. 310 00:17:48,986 --> 00:17:51,954 But what Luciano liked most about Schultz 311 00:17:51,956 --> 00:17:55,024 was his ability to stay low and keep a secret. 312 00:17:55,026 --> 00:17:57,626 By the late '20s, Schultz had mastered the art 313 00:17:57,761 --> 00:17:59,761 of distributing illegal booze to New York 314 00:17:59,797 --> 00:18:01,697 and the rest of the East Coast. 315 00:18:01,699 --> 00:18:03,432 But where did it come from? 316 00:18:03,434 --> 00:18:05,567 No one knew. 317 00:18:05,636 --> 00:18:08,237 Turns out Schultz had created a secret distillery 318 00:18:08,306 --> 00:18:11,173 in the Catskill Mountains that helped him make a fortune. 319 00:18:16,581 --> 00:18:19,048 At its peak, Dutch Schultz's upstate headquarters 320 00:18:19,050 --> 00:18:24,053 had some 16,000 gallons of surreptitious spirits on hand. 321 00:18:24,188 --> 00:18:27,589 16,000 gallons of booze is a lot. 322 00:18:27,592 --> 00:18:29,925 I mean, imagine how much equipment you need 323 00:18:29,961 --> 00:18:31,727 to make that, the personnel involved. 324 00:18:31,796 --> 00:18:33,529 You need a lot of space. 325 00:18:33,664 --> 00:18:36,265 We're standing in the middle of a farm surrounded by woods. 326 00:18:36,267 --> 00:18:39,068 How would you not get caught doing that? 327 00:18:39,070 --> 00:18:41,803 The answer is it's hidden in plain sight. 328 00:18:41,839 --> 00:18:44,240 The distillery is beneath my feet. 329 00:18:51,015 --> 00:18:53,349 Since the days of Prohibition, the roof and sides 330 00:18:53,351 --> 00:18:55,551 of Dutch Schultz's bunker have been excavated, 331 00:18:55,653 --> 00:18:58,287 and the inside space is now part of 332 00:18:58,356 --> 00:19:01,524 a legal distillery called Dutch's Spirits. 333 00:19:16,040 --> 00:19:18,106 Huh! This is awesome. 334 00:19:18,142 --> 00:19:20,843 I mean, look at the scope of this place, 335 00:19:20,912 --> 00:19:23,045 the size and scale. 336 00:19:23,180 --> 00:19:25,915 No other bootlegger had been able to make 337 00:19:25,917 --> 00:19:29,218 so much alcohol and maintain such a low profile. 338 00:19:32,122 --> 00:19:33,722 Schultz had thought of everything, including 339 00:19:33,857 --> 00:19:36,124 how both he and his workers could escape. 340 00:19:36,160 --> 00:19:39,394 This is a tunnel system. How interesting is that? 341 00:19:39,463 --> 00:19:42,064 Let's check this out. 342 00:19:42,066 --> 00:19:45,134 [grunts] 343 00:19:45,136 --> 00:19:48,904 [breathing heavy] 344 00:19:56,814 --> 00:20:00,549 It's very tight quarters 345 00:20:00,684 --> 00:20:03,485 moving down here. They go forever, too. 346 00:20:03,621 --> 00:20:06,755 I mean, there's a whole 'nother tunnel system down that way. 347 00:20:06,757 --> 00:20:09,425 It's just crazy. 348 00:20:12,496 --> 00:20:14,830 This network of tunnels gave Dutch and his employees 349 00:20:14,965 --> 00:20:17,266 an escape route if the Feds came calling. 350 00:20:20,304 --> 00:20:21,970 At the first sign of a raid, they would drop down 351 00:20:22,039 --> 00:20:25,307 into this maze of passageways and emerge from exits 352 00:20:25,376 --> 00:20:27,042 hidden in the surrounding countryside. 353 00:20:34,185 --> 00:20:36,051 His raid-proof underground distillery 354 00:20:36,186 --> 00:20:38,454 made Dutch Schultz the king of the bootleggers 355 00:20:38,589 --> 00:20:41,790 and a favorite of Luciano's. 356 00:20:41,925 --> 00:20:44,927 But one day, everything changed. 357 00:20:44,996 --> 00:20:49,999 In 1932, the Feds conducted multiple raids on the distillery. 358 00:20:50,001 --> 00:20:52,701 Dutch's secret was out. 359 00:21:00,077 --> 00:21:02,210 Soon, the bootlegger became a favorite target 360 00:21:02,246 --> 00:21:05,881 of New York State prosecutor, Thomas Dewey. 361 00:21:05,883 --> 00:21:09,685 The politically savvy Dewey knew that taking down 362 00:21:09,820 --> 00:21:12,353 a big-time mobster could win him clout. 363 00:21:12,390 --> 00:21:14,890 So he went after Schultz 364 00:21:15,025 --> 00:21:16,825 for tax evasion 365 00:21:16,827 --> 00:21:19,295 putting Dutch's fortune at risk. 366 00:21:22,433 --> 00:21:25,767 According to private detective and mob expert Bruce Altman, 367 00:21:25,836 --> 00:21:29,305 Thomas Dewey was close to putting Schultz out of business for good, 368 00:21:29,440 --> 00:21:32,507 and Dutch went ballistic. 369 00:21:32,543 --> 00:21:35,977 You could curse at Dutch Schultz, you can spit at Dutch Schultz, 370 00:21:36,013 --> 00:21:37,913 but don't ever take a dollar from him, 371 00:21:37,982 --> 00:21:39,848 because he'll kill you. Yeah. 372 00:21:39,983 --> 00:21:42,651 But he knew that rubbing out a high-profile prosecutor 373 00:21:42,786 --> 00:21:45,387 meant getting the permission of the mob's top brass, 374 00:21:45,456 --> 00:21:48,123 so he paid a visit to Lucky Luciano. 375 00:21:48,159 --> 00:21:51,927 Dutch made a plea to the syndicate or the commission, 376 00:21:51,929 --> 00:21:53,929 as you say, in front of the table and said 377 00:21:53,931 --> 00:21:55,897 he wanted to kill Dewey 378 00:21:55,933 --> 00:21:58,934 to get them clear of his prosecution. 379 00:21:59,069 --> 00:22:00,402 Not a great idea for them. 380 00:22:00,537 --> 00:22:03,539 That would have brought a lot of heat onto them from the Feds. Exactly. 381 00:22:03,541 --> 00:22:06,341 They knew if they killed Dewey that the Feds would come in 382 00:22:06,343 --> 00:22:10,145 and really come down on their operation. Yeah. 383 00:22:10,280 --> 00:22:14,082 It was denied by Lucky Luciano, 384 00:22:14,085 --> 00:22:17,286 so Schultz went into a rage Huh. 385 00:22:17,288 --> 00:22:20,055 and said that he was going to do it himself. Okay. 386 00:22:24,161 --> 00:22:27,562 Lucky Luciano had dozens of men killed for less, 387 00:22:27,631 --> 00:22:30,432 yet Dutch Schultz was one of Lucky's top earners, 388 00:22:30,567 --> 00:22:33,501 so how would the most powerful mobster in America 389 00:22:33,537 --> 00:22:36,905 handle this unprecedented challenge to his authority? 390 00:22:36,974 --> 00:22:39,708 Was Lucky Luciano going to compromise, 391 00:22:39,777 --> 00:22:42,911 or had Dutch Schultz just signed his own death warrant? 392 00:23:02,347 --> 00:23:04,947 In the mid-1930s, Meyer Lansky and Lucky Luciano 393 00:23:05,016 --> 00:23:08,951 had achieved a dream by creating a nationwide crime syndicate. 394 00:23:09,020 --> 00:23:12,221 It was the first true American mob, 395 00:23:12,356 --> 00:23:14,290 but it wasn't long before they faced 396 00:23:14,359 --> 00:23:17,093 a major test right in their own backyard. 397 00:23:17,095 --> 00:23:20,095 New York gangster, Dutch Schultz, 398 00:23:20,131 --> 00:23:23,766 wanted to kill well-known prosecutor, Thomas Dewey. 399 00:23:23,835 --> 00:23:25,501 Luciano said no. 400 00:23:25,503 --> 00:23:27,570 But Schultz wasn't listening. 401 00:23:31,042 --> 00:23:32,508 Dutch Schultz is an old-school mobster, 402 00:23:32,643 --> 00:23:35,845 and they're trying to make this a professional syndicate, 403 00:23:35,980 --> 00:23:38,914 which is impossible to do with his kind of rage and outbursts. 404 00:23:38,950 --> 00:23:42,718 Two days later, they had a secret meeting, 405 00:23:42,787 --> 00:23:46,822 and Lucky Luciano said that they needed Dutch Schultz killed. 406 00:23:49,794 --> 00:23:52,094 This is huge! Dutch Schultz is a major mobster. 407 00:23:56,801 --> 00:24:01,070 On October 23, 1935 two assassins ambushed Dutch Schultz 408 00:24:01,205 --> 00:24:04,673 in the men's room of the Palace Chop House in Newark, New Jersey. 409 00:24:04,709 --> 00:24:07,610 Dutch Schultz is not expecting anything, 410 00:24:07,745 --> 00:24:09,812 and they started blazing away. 411 00:24:09,814 --> 00:24:12,948 [gunshots blast] 412 00:24:12,984 --> 00:24:15,017 (Don) Three of Dutch's associates were killed, 413 00:24:15,086 --> 00:24:16,485 but Schultz didn't die. 414 00:24:16,487 --> 00:24:20,489 Though riddled with bullets, he lay in a hospital bed 415 00:24:20,491 --> 00:24:22,958 for more than a day before succumbing to his wounds. 416 00:24:22,994 --> 00:24:25,861 He never cooperated with the police. 417 00:24:28,299 --> 00:24:30,366 Dutch Schultz was 33 years old. 418 00:24:35,673 --> 00:24:37,639 By having Dutch Schultz murdered, 419 00:24:37,675 --> 00:24:40,776 the syndicate showed that insubordination would not be tolerated. 420 00:24:46,985 --> 00:24:48,917 Luciano and Lansky's dream of creating 421 00:24:48,987 --> 00:24:52,455 a nationwide American mob had come true. 422 00:24:52,590 --> 00:24:55,991 But their problems didn't end with Dutch Schultz. 423 00:24:55,993 --> 00:24:58,661 In fact, less than a year later, 424 00:24:58,663 --> 00:25:00,729 Luciano's challenges only got bigger. 425 00:25:00,765 --> 00:25:03,131 In 1936, 426 00:25:03,167 --> 00:25:05,601 he was arrested on charges related to prostitution 427 00:25:05,603 --> 00:25:08,870 and sentenced to 30 to 50 years in Federal prison. 428 00:25:08,906 --> 00:25:13,376 It seemed as if Luciano's luck had finally run out. 429 00:25:18,249 --> 00:25:20,215 Into the void stepped Meyer Lansky, 430 00:25:20,251 --> 00:25:22,885 who would become the New York mob's de facto leader 431 00:25:23,020 --> 00:25:25,220 and who would concoct an elaborate scheme 432 00:25:25,289 --> 00:25:27,489 to get his old friend Lucky out of jail. 433 00:25:27,558 --> 00:25:31,293 It was a secret deal that pitted the American mob 434 00:25:31,329 --> 00:25:33,295 against its toughest enemy yet-- 435 00:25:33,331 --> 00:25:35,831 Adolf Hitler and the Nazis. 436 00:25:39,437 --> 00:25:41,837 I'm at Manhattan's South Street Seaport, 437 00:25:41,972 --> 00:25:44,306 once the center of the city's vast waterfront. 438 00:25:44,375 --> 00:25:47,509 It's hard to envision this today, 439 00:25:47,578 --> 00:25:50,246 but back in 1942, the Fulton Fish Market, 440 00:25:50,381 --> 00:25:53,048 that building right there, was the bustling heart 441 00:25:53,184 --> 00:25:56,051 of the seaport and controlled by the mob. 442 00:25:56,054 --> 00:25:58,320 But how does a fish market figure 443 00:25:58,322 --> 00:26:00,456 into organized crime's war years? 444 00:26:02,827 --> 00:26:05,861 I'm meeting mob writer Eric Dezenhall at the Paris Cafe, 445 00:26:05,897 --> 00:26:08,664 a local institution that's overlooked the fish market 446 00:26:08,799 --> 00:26:11,367 and the waterfront for almost 150 years. 447 00:26:13,104 --> 00:26:15,470 Eric has the inside story on a top-secret alliance 448 00:26:15,506 --> 00:26:18,741 that turned gangsters into patriots. 449 00:26:20,811 --> 00:26:22,477 1941, you have Pearl Harbor. 450 00:26:22,547 --> 00:26:25,147 A month or two later, you have the largest 451 00:26:25,216 --> 00:26:28,818 cruise ship in the world blown up at Pier 88 New York, 452 00:26:28,953 --> 00:26:30,286 the<i> Normandie</i> . 453 00:26:32,990 --> 00:26:35,958 (Don) The burning ship lit up the sky for 12 hours 454 00:26:35,960 --> 00:26:38,494 before capsizing dockside. 455 00:26:38,563 --> 00:26:40,829 Hundreds of shocked New Yorkers 456 00:26:40,865 --> 00:26:43,165 filed past the wreckage. 457 00:26:43,167 --> 00:26:46,168 Thousands more Americans saw the devastation in news reels. 458 00:26:46,303 --> 00:26:49,638 Was it sabotage, an accident? 459 00:26:49,674 --> 00:26:51,240 Or something else? 460 00:26:51,375 --> 00:26:54,043 For the U.S. Government, the answer didn't matter. 461 00:26:54,178 --> 00:26:56,444 The<i> Normandie</i> was a wake-up call. 462 00:26:56,480 --> 00:26:59,815 Securing the country meant securing New York City's waterfront. 463 00:26:59,917 --> 00:27:02,851 Otherwise, the East Coast's busiest commercial port 464 00:27:02,987 --> 00:27:05,521 would become the homeland's Achilles heel. 465 00:27:07,725 --> 00:27:10,593 So, the idea of German sabotage was very real. 466 00:27:10,728 --> 00:27:14,463 The Roosevelt administration sent Naval agents 467 00:27:14,598 --> 00:27:17,266 down to the waterfront to try to get cooperation 468 00:27:17,401 --> 00:27:19,067 from the dock workers. 469 00:27:19,137 --> 00:27:22,204 The dock workers looked at men in uniform, and they went "Nope." 470 00:27:22,339 --> 00:27:23,606 Yeah. Not talking to you. 471 00:27:23,608 --> 00:27:26,275 So the government had a problem. 472 00:27:26,344 --> 00:27:29,277 They said if we need cooperation 473 00:27:29,313 --> 00:27:32,147 from the guys on the dock, how do we get it? Mmhm. 474 00:27:32,216 --> 00:27:35,016 (Don) The only way for cooperation was to get the boss's blessing. 475 00:27:35,052 --> 00:27:38,420 But the government had just put Lucky Luciano in jail, 476 00:27:38,422 --> 00:27:40,889 and he wasn't so eager to cooperate. 477 00:27:40,925 --> 00:27:42,391 So they went to Meyer Lansky. 478 00:27:44,795 --> 00:27:46,761 Meyer Lansky was an immigrant from Poland. 479 00:27:46,797 --> 00:27:49,498 The theory at the time was maybe the Jewish guys 480 00:27:49,500 --> 00:27:54,169 have greater motive to help you given what's happening with the Nazis. 481 00:27:54,238 --> 00:27:57,906 (Don) Meyer Lansky became the government's back channel to the mob. 482 00:27:57,975 --> 00:28:02,044 We're actually in a building that was the headquarters of this operation, aren't we? 483 00:28:02,046 --> 00:28:04,980 Some of the meetings that were held to try 484 00:28:05,049 --> 00:28:08,584 to recruit the mob by the Navy were held upstairs. 485 00:28:08,586 --> 00:28:11,520 (Don) But Lansky didn't get rich by making bad deals, 486 00:28:11,589 --> 00:28:15,257 and he knew that the ultimate order had to come from his boss, 487 00:28:15,326 --> 00:28:17,859 Lucky Luciano. 488 00:28:17,895 --> 00:28:20,528 So Lansky returns to the feds with a final message, 489 00:28:20,565 --> 00:28:24,333 and sure enough, the mob's cooperation wouldn't come free. 490 00:28:24,335 --> 00:28:26,869 What was ultimately in it for the mob 491 00:28:26,871 --> 00:28:30,139 was getting Luciano freed from jail. 492 00:28:30,274 --> 00:28:34,009 (Don) Lucky Luciano was willing to hand over the docks, 493 00:28:34,078 --> 00:28:36,211 but the price tag was his freedom. 494 00:28:36,214 --> 00:28:39,014 So would the feds let the world's most 495 00:28:39,083 --> 00:28:42,351 powerful mobster out of jail to help win the war? 496 00:28:53,531 --> 00:28:54,763 At the height of World War II, 497 00:28:54,765 --> 00:28:57,632 the U.S. Government was looking for any and all help 498 00:28:57,668 --> 00:29:01,437 in its fight to fend off the seemingly unstoppable Nazi forces. 499 00:29:01,439 --> 00:29:04,974 But how far were they willing to go? 500 00:29:05,109 --> 00:29:06,976 Would they join forces 501 00:29:07,111 --> 00:29:09,311 with the world's most dangerous mobsters? 502 00:29:11,549 --> 00:29:14,916 With Lucky Luciano in Federal prison, the mob was without its leader. 503 00:29:14,986 --> 00:29:18,453 Luciano controlled the New York docks, 504 00:29:18,489 --> 00:29:20,522 so his second-in-command, 505 00:29:20,524 --> 00:29:23,592 Meyer Lansky, offered the U.S. Government a deal. 506 00:29:23,594 --> 00:29:26,328 The mob would help secure the docks, 507 00:29:26,364 --> 00:29:29,832 but Luciano had to be set free. 508 00:29:32,336 --> 00:29:34,703 Eventually, the secret deal was done. 509 00:29:37,141 --> 00:29:39,875 Operation Underworld was born. 510 00:29:39,944 --> 00:29:41,944 So the mafia becomes the eyes and ears 511 00:29:42,079 --> 00:29:44,079 of the U.S. Government in the-- 512 00:29:44,214 --> 00:29:46,215 in the port of New York? Yes. 513 00:29:53,691 --> 00:29:57,225 (Don) As part of the deal, the mob pledged total assistance 514 00:29:57,295 --> 00:30:00,229 to the U.S. Navy, who guarded and used those ports. 515 00:30:02,366 --> 00:30:05,500 They also made sure there were no dock worker strikes during the war. 516 00:30:05,569 --> 00:30:09,271 And the benefits weren't only felt at home. 517 00:30:10,941 --> 00:30:13,175 For months leading up to the Allied invasion, 518 00:30:13,310 --> 00:30:16,044 Luciano's mafia contacts in Sicily 519 00:30:16,047 --> 00:30:18,113 kept watch on troop movements. 520 00:30:19,517 --> 00:30:22,917 When Allied Armies invaded Italy, they knew just where to find the enemy. 521 00:30:22,953 --> 00:30:25,921 Why haven't I heard about this until now? 522 00:30:25,990 --> 00:30:27,656 The government didn't want you to hear about it. 523 00:30:27,658 --> 00:30:30,259 In fact, nobody acknowledged it for many years. 524 00:30:30,394 --> 00:30:32,327 So shrouded in secrecy for years. 525 00:30:32,330 --> 00:30:34,596 And what about Lucky Luciano? 526 00:30:34,598 --> 00:30:37,533 Did the U.S. Government write a pass for one of 527 00:30:37,535 --> 00:30:40,001 the most ruthless mobsters of all time? 528 00:30:40,037 --> 00:30:41,503 Not exactly. 529 00:30:43,074 --> 00:30:46,074 After the war, Luciano was not set free as he had hoped. 530 00:30:46,143 --> 00:30:48,477 Instead, the man many considered 531 00:30:48,546 --> 00:30:50,612 to be the father of modern organized crime 532 00:30:50,681 --> 00:30:53,214 had his sentence commuted and was deported back 533 00:30:53,250 --> 00:30:56,185 to Italy, never to set foot on American soil again. 534 00:30:59,256 --> 00:31:01,289 But the intrigue didn't end with the operation. 535 00:31:01,358 --> 00:31:03,692 Like any good mob story, 536 00:31:03,694 --> 00:31:06,095 this one remains cloaked in mystery. 537 00:31:08,565 --> 00:31:11,700 Rumors have persisted that the<i> Normandie</i> wasn't the victim of espionage. 538 00:31:13,704 --> 00:31:17,373 Some say the ship was actually torched on orders from the mob. 539 00:31:21,712 --> 00:31:23,712 Indeed, in his memoir, Lucky Luciano 540 00:31:23,781 --> 00:31:25,647 took credit for the<i> Normandie</i> disaster. 541 00:31:25,783 --> 00:31:28,784 He suggested, in effect, 542 00:31:28,786 --> 00:31:31,954 that the mob set up and outsmarted the government. 543 00:31:35,025 --> 00:31:37,526 So did Lucky Luciano order a hit on an ocean liner 544 00:31:37,661 --> 00:31:40,262 to scare the government into doing business with him? 545 00:31:40,264 --> 00:31:43,165 We'll probably never know for sure. 546 00:31:45,736 --> 00:31:49,071 In 1945, the Japanese surrendered, and the war was over. 547 00:31:52,376 --> 00:31:54,676 So, did the mob help win World War II? 548 00:31:54,678 --> 00:31:57,546 You could certainly make a case for that. 549 00:32:01,685 --> 00:32:03,685 While exiled in Italy, 550 00:32:03,821 --> 00:32:06,421 Luciano attempted to run the mob from abroad, 551 00:32:08,526 --> 00:32:10,826 but post-war America was tough. 552 00:32:10,828 --> 00:32:13,362 So would the mob wither away, 553 00:32:13,364 --> 00:32:15,297 or could they find the next big racket, 554 00:32:15,432 --> 00:32:17,499 and if so, where? 555 00:32:17,568 --> 00:32:20,435 Turns out, the mob wasn't finished yet. 556 00:32:20,504 --> 00:32:23,571 The answer to their problems was gambling, 557 00:32:23,607 --> 00:32:26,775 and the place was Las Vegas. 558 00:32:26,910 --> 00:32:28,910 And Luciano and Lansky would call on an old friend 559 00:32:28,946 --> 00:32:31,113 from Five Points to pull it off. 560 00:32:31,115 --> 00:32:33,849 His name was Bugsy Siegel. 561 00:32:33,984 --> 00:32:37,386 Bugsy Siegel was in Los Angeles at this time 562 00:32:37,388 --> 00:32:39,721 running the rackets there. Mmhm. 563 00:32:39,857 --> 00:32:41,323 They send him to Las Vegas. 564 00:32:43,594 --> 00:32:46,394 (Don) Benjamin Siegel's criminal resume was tough to beat. 565 00:32:46,463 --> 00:32:48,430 By 1946, 566 00:32:48,432 --> 00:32:50,465 he'd made his mark in the underworld as a hitman, 567 00:32:50,467 --> 00:32:53,001 a bootlegger, and a ruthless gambler. 568 00:32:53,070 --> 00:32:55,871 But not unlike Capone, 569 00:32:56,006 --> 00:32:58,607 Bugsy was also attracted to the limelight, 570 00:32:58,609 --> 00:33:00,408 hobnobbing with Hollywood stars 571 00:33:00,444 --> 00:33:04,012 and dating a famous actress, Virginia Hill. 572 00:33:04,147 --> 00:33:07,215 But it was Siegel's violent temper 573 00:33:07,251 --> 00:33:10,085 that was his trademark, earning him a nickname 574 00:33:10,154 --> 00:33:13,689 that he hated--"Bugsy." 575 00:33:13,691 --> 00:33:17,159 He had killed people-- there was no question about that. 576 00:33:17,161 --> 00:33:19,694 He would just go "Bugsy," as they said, back in the day. 577 00:33:19,763 --> 00:33:22,464 You didn't want to be in his way when that happened. Right. 578 00:33:25,669 --> 00:33:28,036 (Don) Luciano and Lansky tasked Bugsy with overseeing 579 00:33:28,171 --> 00:33:30,105 the conversion of an old hotel 580 00:33:30,107 --> 00:33:33,842 into Las Vegas's first mob-owned casino-- 581 00:33:33,911 --> 00:33:35,911 the Flamingo. 582 00:33:36,046 --> 00:33:39,848 Within just a few months, the project was behind schedule, 583 00:33:39,917 --> 00:33:43,251 and Bugsy was millions of dollars in debt. 584 00:33:43,287 --> 00:33:46,988 I mean, he ended up spending more than 6 million dollars. Wow. 585 00:33:47,024 --> 00:33:50,191 (Don) And his bosses back East weren't happy. 586 00:33:50,227 --> 00:33:53,528 ♪♪ 587 00:33:53,564 --> 00:33:55,397 But despite all the pitfalls, 588 00:33:55,532 --> 00:33:58,266 Siegel finally opened the Flamingo's doors 589 00:33:58,269 --> 00:34:01,469 on December 26, 1946. 590 00:34:01,538 --> 00:34:03,739 But here's the problem-- he opens the casino 591 00:34:03,741 --> 00:34:06,074 before the hotel is done, so there's no rooms. 592 00:34:06,110 --> 00:34:08,677 (Don) The Flamingo is a flop. 593 00:34:08,679 --> 00:34:11,412 Bugsy decides, you know what? We'd better close this down. 594 00:34:11,448 --> 00:34:14,149 Start over, finish the hotel 595 00:34:14,151 --> 00:34:16,084 and reopen, and then everything will be great. 596 00:34:16,219 --> 00:34:19,087 And was it? Well, actually it was. 597 00:34:19,089 --> 00:34:22,023 (Don) The Flamingo's second opening was a smash, 598 00:34:22,092 --> 00:34:26,428 and the mob finally began seeing profits rolling in. 599 00:34:26,497 --> 00:34:28,563 Yet just two months later, Bugsy's dreams 600 00:34:28,632 --> 00:34:30,699 were brought to a screeching halt. 601 00:34:30,701 --> 00:34:34,235 On June 20, 1947, 602 00:34:34,271 --> 00:34:36,371 a hail of bullets rained down 603 00:34:36,506 --> 00:34:39,107 in the living room of Virginia Hill's L.A. home. 604 00:34:39,176 --> 00:34:42,177 Bugsy never had a chance. 605 00:34:42,246 --> 00:34:45,713 A gunman shoots him through the window and kills him. Wow! 606 00:34:45,749 --> 00:34:48,717 (Don) Bugsy's murder was never solved 607 00:34:48,719 --> 00:34:50,318 and to this day remains 608 00:34:50,387 --> 00:34:53,121 one of the mob's biggest uncracked cases. 609 00:34:53,190 --> 00:34:55,523 So was it a mob hit 610 00:34:55,592 --> 00:34:57,792 or something completely different? 611 00:34:57,795 --> 00:35:00,796 Who killed Bugsy Siegel? 612 00:35:12,876 --> 00:35:14,609 Of all the secrets kept by the American mob 613 00:35:14,611 --> 00:35:16,344 in the 20th century, 614 00:35:16,413 --> 00:35:19,014 there's one question that rises above the rest 615 00:35:19,083 --> 00:35:22,283 and centers on one of the mob's most iconic 616 00:35:22,319 --> 00:35:25,153 and flamboyant characters-- 617 00:35:25,155 --> 00:35:28,890 who killed Bugsy Siegel? 618 00:35:28,892 --> 00:35:30,826 Who killed Bugsy remains one of 619 00:35:30,961 --> 00:35:33,228 the most enduring of mob mysteries. 620 00:35:33,363 --> 00:35:34,963 The long accepted theory 621 00:35:35,098 --> 00:35:37,899 is that the New York mob put a hit on Bugsy 622 00:35:37,935 --> 00:35:40,168 for his overspending on the Flamingo, 623 00:35:40,303 --> 00:35:43,972 but was it really money or love 624 00:35:44,041 --> 00:35:46,174 that got Bugsy Siegel whacked? 625 00:35:46,309 --> 00:35:49,644 ♪♪ 626 00:35:49,780 --> 00:35:52,981 To try and find out, I'm heading to the El Cortez casino, 627 00:35:53,116 --> 00:35:56,184 a first generation Las Vegas landmark, 628 00:35:56,319 --> 00:36:00,188 to meet a man who claims to know the identity 629 00:36:00,323 --> 00:36:02,224 of Bugsy's true killer. 630 00:36:06,263 --> 00:36:09,731 Bernie Sindler was first introduced to the mob by a chance encounter 631 00:36:09,800 --> 00:36:12,667 on a train leaving Baltimore. 632 00:36:12,736 --> 00:36:16,004 On the train, a man says to me, 633 00:36:16,006 --> 00:36:18,873 "Hey kid, can you do some card tricks?" 634 00:36:18,909 --> 00:36:21,342 I said to him, "Yeah." 635 00:36:21,411 --> 00:36:23,745 He says, "My name is Meyer." 636 00:36:23,814 --> 00:36:26,014 (Don) Meyer Lansky took Bernie under his wing, 637 00:36:26,083 --> 00:36:28,550 introducing him to Bugsy Siegel. 638 00:36:28,552 --> 00:36:31,019 Sindler would have entree into the secret world 639 00:36:31,154 --> 00:36:33,154 of Vegas organized crime. 640 00:36:33,190 --> 00:36:38,359 So Bugsy Siegel was scary, fiery, mercurial. 641 00:36:38,395 --> 00:36:40,562 Scared the heck out of everybody, right? He did. 642 00:36:40,564 --> 00:36:43,564 Why didn't he scare you? I had no reason to be scared, 643 00:36:43,600 --> 00:36:45,767 so I wasn't scared. Okay. 644 00:36:45,769 --> 00:36:49,303 I didn't think about him, being as goofy as he was... 645 00:36:49,339 --> 00:36:51,039 to me he was fun. Okay. 646 00:36:51,174 --> 00:36:53,842 While Bernie has fond memories of these times, 647 00:36:53,977 --> 00:36:57,913 he was also around when news of Bugsy's killing hit the strip, 648 00:36:57,915 --> 00:37:01,583 and he doesn't buy the common knowledge about who pulled the trigger. 649 00:37:01,718 --> 00:37:03,851 The running theory is that Meyer Lansky 650 00:37:03,887 --> 00:37:05,920 had Bugsy Siegel offed 651 00:37:05,989 --> 00:37:08,990 because he was skimming from the Flamingo. 652 00:37:09,059 --> 00:37:12,327 Absolutely not! You couldn't just go kill Benny. 653 00:37:12,329 --> 00:37:14,195 You weren't allowed to do that. 654 00:37:14,264 --> 00:37:17,732 Bernie says there's only one little known theory that fits. 655 00:37:17,768 --> 00:37:19,868 I know who killed Bugsy. 656 00:37:20,003 --> 00:37:23,805 There is no doubt in my mind about who did it. 657 00:37:23,874 --> 00:37:27,942 Is it possible that one of the American mob's most infamous hits 658 00:37:28,011 --> 00:37:31,880 wasn't actually carried out by the mob at all? 659 00:37:43,664 --> 00:37:47,799 On June 20, 1947, infamous mobster Bugsy Siegel 660 00:37:47,836 --> 00:37:50,402 was murdered in the home of his famous girlfriend, 661 00:37:50,472 --> 00:37:52,538 actress Virginia Hill. 662 00:37:52,607 --> 00:37:55,341 Rumors at the time pinned the hit 663 00:37:55,343 --> 00:37:58,277 on Bugsy's mob associates and old friends, 664 00:37:58,346 --> 00:38:01,413 Meyer Lansky and Lucky Luciano. 665 00:38:01,449 --> 00:38:05,084 But that's not the only theory on who was responsible for Bugsy's death. 666 00:38:08,389 --> 00:38:10,623 Tell me your theory of this. 667 00:38:10,758 --> 00:38:13,158 I claim that 668 00:38:13,194 --> 00:38:15,294 Virginia Hill's brother 669 00:38:15,429 --> 00:38:18,964 killed Benny Siegel. Wow! 670 00:38:19,033 --> 00:38:22,568 (Don) Virginia Hill's brother, Chick, was a part-time gopher for Bugsy. 671 00:38:22,570 --> 00:38:26,038 What could make him want to kill his sister's main man? 672 00:38:26,107 --> 00:38:29,775 According to Bernie, it was because Bugsy was no gentleman. 673 00:38:29,844 --> 00:38:31,843 He was abusive. Okay. 674 00:38:31,880 --> 00:38:34,580 And Virginia told her brother about it, 675 00:38:34,582 --> 00:38:36,715 because I happened to be there and hear it. 676 00:38:36,784 --> 00:38:40,319 He says, "I'm gonna kill that son of a bitch." 677 00:38:40,321 --> 00:38:44,590 (Don) And crime scene evidence may back Bernie up. 678 00:38:44,592 --> 00:38:48,260 Police and press accounts at the time all agree 679 00:38:48,296 --> 00:38:50,329 that the bullets that killed Bugsy Siegel 680 00:38:50,331 --> 00:38:54,333 were fired by a rifle aimed from outside his girlfriend's home. 681 00:38:54,335 --> 00:38:57,870 Moreover, Siegel was killed by a military rifle, 682 00:38:58,005 --> 00:39:00,405 and Chick Hill was a combat marksman. 683 00:39:00,441 --> 00:39:04,744 Chick Hill was never officially considered a suspect, 684 00:39:04,746 --> 00:39:07,146 and within a few years of Bugsy's murder, 685 00:39:07,215 --> 00:39:10,816 he vanished seemingly into thin air. 686 00:39:10,852 --> 00:39:12,818 So this is still an unsolved murder, isn't it? 687 00:39:12,954 --> 00:39:15,688 It's officially an unsolved murder. Huh. 688 00:39:17,425 --> 00:39:21,427 Benjamin Bugsy Siegel didn't live to see Las Vegas's rise 689 00:39:21,429 --> 00:39:24,630 into the city of mob-run casino hotels for which 690 00:39:24,632 --> 00:39:26,899 his beloved Flamingo was the prototype, 691 00:39:26,968 --> 00:39:30,168 nor did he share in the vast riches 692 00:39:30,205 --> 00:39:32,170 the city produced, 693 00:39:32,207 --> 00:39:35,841 but the mob's grip on Las Vegas wouldn't last either. 694 00:39:35,844 --> 00:39:39,512 Billionaire investors coveted the goldmine 695 00:39:39,647 --> 00:39:41,814 that Bugsy Siegel had unearthed. 696 00:39:43,718 --> 00:39:47,119 Soon, corporate entities were snapping up mob-owned casinos, 697 00:39:47,255 --> 00:39:50,990 tearing them down, and replacing them with mega resorts. 698 00:39:51,125 --> 00:39:54,360 Between the new competition 699 00:39:54,462 --> 00:39:56,996 and continued heat from law enforcement, 700 00:39:57,131 --> 00:40:00,399 the mob's Las Vegas glory days were soon over. 701 00:40:04,071 --> 00:40:07,072 So too were the careers of its prime architects. 702 00:40:07,141 --> 00:40:09,875 After a quarter century, 703 00:40:09,877 --> 00:40:12,411 those who created the American mob as we know it 704 00:40:12,413 --> 00:40:16,348 inevitably began to die off, 705 00:40:16,384 --> 00:40:19,285 taking their tightly kept secrets with them to the grave. 706 00:40:19,420 --> 00:40:23,756 ♪♪ 707 00:40:23,758 --> 00:40:26,291 After being snagged on tax evasion and imprisoned 708 00:40:26,361 --> 00:40:28,560 throughout most of the 1930s, 709 00:40:28,629 --> 00:40:31,830 Al Capone never recaptured the glory of the 1920s. 710 00:40:31,866 --> 00:40:35,034 He spent his later years battling the effects of 711 00:40:35,169 --> 00:40:38,370 syphilis and gonorrhea, and in 1947, 712 00:40:38,406 --> 00:40:41,507 he died a shell of his former self. 713 00:40:41,509 --> 00:40:45,911 ♪♪ 714 00:40:45,980 --> 00:40:48,180 After the mob lost its grip on Vegas, 715 00:40:48,249 --> 00:40:50,583 Meyer Lansky opened up casinos in Cuba, 716 00:40:50,585 --> 00:40:54,319 where he tried to set up a new home for the mob, 717 00:40:54,389 --> 00:40:58,323 but that dream ended when Fidel Castro's revolution 718 00:40:58,393 --> 00:41:01,360 drove Lansky and all of the mob money out. 719 00:41:03,264 --> 00:41:06,666 Meyer Lansky would go on to live a mostly quiet life in Florida, 720 00:41:06,801 --> 00:41:10,770 finally dying of lung cancer in 1983 at the age of 80. 721 00:41:14,275 --> 00:41:17,342 Upon his exile to Italy, Charles "Lucky" Luciano 722 00:41:17,378 --> 00:41:19,945 continued to try and run the mob from afar 723 00:41:19,947 --> 00:41:22,681 but without success. 724 00:41:22,717 --> 00:41:26,085 Eventually, a new generation of American mobsters 725 00:41:26,154 --> 00:41:29,021 led by Vito Genovese and Luciano's 726 00:41:29,023 --> 00:41:31,757 eventual replacement, Carlo Gambino, 727 00:41:31,892 --> 00:41:35,895 muscled in, and by 1959, Lucky was out of the game. 728 00:41:39,100 --> 00:41:41,767 On January 1962, 729 00:41:41,803 --> 00:41:44,704 Luciano died of a heart attack in the Naples airport. 730 00:41:44,839 --> 00:41:47,106 He was 64 years old. 731 00:41:55,783 --> 00:41:57,583 While Lucky Luciano and Meyer Lansky 732 00:41:57,585 --> 00:42:00,786 may have had dreams of eventually taking the mob legit, 733 00:42:00,855 --> 00:42:04,390 they could never shake off their Five Points roots. 734 00:42:04,392 --> 00:42:07,193 Greed, lust for fame, violence, 735 00:42:07,195 --> 00:42:10,262 the same sins that made them household names 736 00:42:10,331 --> 00:42:12,598 ultimately doomed them. 737 00:42:12,733 --> 00:42:16,268 And when their era ended, so did the mob as we know best. 738 00:42:16,337 --> 00:42:19,471 So, does organized crime still exist? 739 00:42:19,474 --> 00:42:22,274 Of course, but no one before or since 740 00:42:22,343 --> 00:42:24,610 has ever done it quite the same. 741 00:42:25,305 --> 00:43:25,393 Watch Online Movies and Series for FREE www.osdb.link/lm