Introducing: The Godmother

In the 1930s, Lucky Luciano, one of American history’s most notorious mobsters, was finally taken down by a rookie prosecutor, Eunice Carter. She was one of the first Black Women ever to become a prosecutor in America. She changed the course of  history, but she has largely been forgotten. The Godmother tells the story of Eunice: a bad-ass anti-hero unafraid to bend the rules in pursuit of ambition, justice and legacy.

The Godmother is produced by Novel for iHeartPodcasts.
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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
I'm Nicole Perkins, and in my new podcast, The Godmother,
I'm inviting you to nineteen thirty six New York to
a Manhattan courthouse.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
At the time, it was called the Trial of the Century.
They had snipers on the roofs in Foley Square. They
had police officers with riot guns in the hallway.

Speaker 1 (00:22):
On the stand was one of America's most notorious gangsters,
a man named Lucky Luciano.

Speaker 2 (00:30):
He is called sometimes the Boss of Bosses. NiCoT Father
was a great film based Paul on the Luciana legend.

Speaker 1 (00:38):
At this trial, on a crisp spring morning, in the
middle of the Great Depression, Lucky would finally be.

Speaker 2 (00:45):
Brought down or Old Luciano said, Holy Toledo, you're giving
me a life sentence. Everybody generally agrees that that was
the nail in Lucky's coffin.

Speaker 1 (00:57):
But beneath the glitz, the glamour, the grime, and the
notoriety of this moment in American history, there's another story
that's being overshadowed, a name that's been left out of
the Hollywood retellings, Unice Carter.

Speaker 2 (01:13):
There's a better story to be told, a more complex story.
But for Unice Carter. I don't know that Lucciana wouldever
have been convicted.

Speaker 1 (01:20):
Unice Carter was a black female lawyer in nineteen thirties
America who took down one of history's most notorious gangsters.

Speaker 2 (01:28):
Unice Carter was the spark that started the fire.

Speaker 1 (01:33):
She was the one that said, this is how we
get it. So why hasn't she been remembered.

Speaker 3 (01:38):
I just want people to know what she did.

Speaker 1 (01:41):
I've been doing some digging, and what I found paints
a picture of a complex, fascinating woman.

Speaker 2 (01:47):
This is a straight shooter who will say something and
mean it.

Speaker 3 (01:51):
She intimidated a lot of people in real life. She
was just kind of a fierce person.

Speaker 1 (01:57):
All around us. Today, Black American history is being erased,
especially the stories of black women.

Speaker 3 (02:04):
It's not even just that not everyone remembers Unice, but
that people don't even believe she could have existed. The
idea that she could have existed seems like a fantasy
to people.

Speaker 1 (02:14):
Remembering Unice Carter feels more urgent than ever. This is
a story of ambition, justice, and legacy. This is the
story of Unice Carter.

Speaker 3 (02:29):
The influence that you have while you're alive matters, even
if after you're gone, everyone forgets about you. It doesn't
mean that it was all for nothing.

Speaker 1 (02:39):
Listen to The Godmother with me Nicole Perkins, Launching on
January fifteenth on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
you get your podcasts.