Inside the Mafia： The Shocking True Story of Frank Costello and Vito Genovese

Inside the Mafia： The Shocking True Story of Frank Costello and Vito Genovese

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:39):
On the second of May nineteen fifty seven, Frank Costello,
head of the Lucciano crime family, had enjoyed a dinner
with friends in an eastside restaurant. We took a cab
to his apartment, the Majestic on the fashionable Upper West
side of New York Central Park. As Costello entered the lobby,

(01:07):
a large man stepped out of the shadows, raised his
arm and said, this is for you, Frank. This organized
hit on a top mafia boss would signal the rise

(01:28):
of the most dangerous gangster in America, Vito Genovise.

Speaker 2 (01:33):
Vito Genovesi was never anything but a homicidal maniac.

Speaker 3 (01:42):
Only most despicable gangster ever to run the streets of
the city.

Speaker 1 (01:49):
But Genoviz's rise would also be a major turning point
in the history of the mafia, and his actions would
bring down the full force of the FBI on the bomb.

Speaker 2 (02:03):
Are you gonna have any of the same as to.

Speaker 4 (02:04):
Jevi, It's the true that you have ahead of the
mafia in.

Speaker 1 (02:09):
This country, So that's Eno. Vito Genevise arrived in New
York from Naples when he was fifteen years old and

(02:30):
joined the thousands of other Italian immigrants to hit the
city shores at the turn of the century.

Speaker 2 (02:37):
Jenevesek grew up in the slums of New York. From
the beginning, he was involved in these terrifying streaky violence ruled,
and he never changed.

Speaker 3 (02:50):
Genevise was a product of Bengta of New York City.
He was constantly in conflict. Everything had to be out
of the barrel of began that Genevieves.

Speaker 1 (03:03):
Police records show that over the next ten years, Geneviez
was charged with shooting a man in Queen's running down
and killing a man in Brooklyn, having a loaded revolver
tugged into his belt on the Lower East Side, and

(03:27):
murdering another hoodlum rido Jenevieves.

Speaker 3 (03:35):
I'll give you a great example of what he did.
He fell in love with a woman named Anna who
was married to someone else. Genevive and his thugs threw
her husband off a ruler he could marry her, and
he married her.

Speaker 2 (03:55):
Read it was just a ritual with him. He had
no conscience.

Speaker 1 (04:01):
This appetite for killing did not go unnoticed. By the
mid nineteen twenties, Geneviz was a hit man for the
greatest mafia boss of the morning, Charles Lucky Luciano.

Speaker 3 (04:22):
Rito Genovis rose to the top by intimidation, and the
guy who hold on him to do that was what
with Luciano. Luckily, Luciano used Rito Geneviz as his intimidator.

Speaker 2 (04:36):
Luciano may have looked very cultivated, but he needed hit man,
and when he needed hitman, one of the first people
he turned to was Vido Jenny Vason.

Speaker 1 (04:48):
By nineteen thirty one, Geneviz was acknowledged as Lucky Luciano's
right hand man and underboss, and was one of the
key hitmens sent by Luciano to kill rival boss Giuseppe Messa.

(05:11):
Such was his reputation that Genoese was known as Don
Vito the Great Veto, and in nineteen thirty six, Genevies
got the chance to take the top job when mafia

(05:32):
boss Luciana was convicted on prostitution charges and sent to
prison for fifty years.

Speaker 2 (05:44):
When Lucky was convicted and sentenced to a long prison time,
Veto considered himself to be the heir, apparently, but.

Speaker 1 (05:54):
Things didn't go to plan. Geneviz now also found himself
being pursued.

Speaker 2 (06:01):
Vito Genovesei had been involved in a murder in the
early nineteen thirties and somehow had managed to beat the rap.

Speaker 1 (06:12):
The victim had been one of Geneviz's gangsters who had
demanded too big a share of a crooked card game.
Now an informer came forward and pointed the finger at
Genevese as the man who had ordered the hit, just

(06:43):
as he was about to take control of the Luciano family.
Genevies was forced to flee to Italy to escape the
murder charge and the electric chair. With genevives now out
of the picture, Luciano sent work from his prison cell
for Frank Costello to step in as boss, just like Genevese.

(07:15):
Frank Costello was born in Italy. He was four years
old when he arrived in East Harlem with his parents
in nineteen hundred. His father ran a grocery shop, and
from an early age, Costello despised his humbleness. He loathed
the way his father was willing to settle for a
life of poverty. Costello chose the streets rather than work

(07:46):
with his father, and joined one of the violent gangs
of New York In nineteen fifteen, Costello was arrested and
sentenced to a year in jail for carrying a gun,
but this event changed him and would make him a

(08:06):
very different man to Geneviez. On his release, Costello decided
to use his brains, not bullets to get ahead.

Speaker 5 (08:22):
The people that he worked with were prone to violence
opposed by definition, and he understood that murders were bad
for business.

Speaker 2 (08:33):
He would never be a kind of hitman gum a
muscleman type. He was a gentleman gangster. He was never
going to be a thug. And he also latched onto
something called slot machines.

Speaker 1 (08:48):
By the nineteen thirties, Frank Costello was known to the
underworld as King of the slots. His illegal one armed
bandit machines were grossing five hundred thousand dollars a day.

Speaker 2 (09:02):
He made millions and established him as somebody who was
known as an owner, not a guy who goes out
and has to commit hits or violent crimes.

Speaker 1 (09:14):
With Genovese gone, Frank Costello was a very powerful man.
He was now the head of the New York Mafia,
the largest mob family in America, with more than four
hundred soldiers beneath him. Costello easily filled Luciano's shoes and
continue to add billions of dollars to the family's fortunes.

(09:43):
Far away in Italy, Genevez was just trying to make
his way. It is said that when he fled the
US on the murder charge, he had seven hundred and
fifty thousand dollars in his trunk. Genovese was going to
need it. Benito Mussolini, the head of the National Fascist

(10:06):
Party in Italy, was fiercely against the Sicilian mafia, but
Genevieve would soon discover that he was open to office.

Speaker 2 (10:17):
Jenobsei cottoned up to Benito Mussolini by providing money, providing
donations to Fascist buildings, and he even managed to pull
off a hit for Mussolini. In New York, there was
a newspaper which would be the persistent critic of Mussolini.

(10:37):
He went to Don Vito Genovesi, who got worried to
his killers in New York and they murdered the editor.

Speaker 1 (10:48):
As a reward for Genevise's donations and services, Mussolini gave
him an Italian knighthood.

Speaker 5 (10:55):
But of course Mussolini was known for shooting mafioso's and
so he could never really relax.

Speaker 1 (11:07):
When World War II began, genevis seized another opportunity, and he.

Speaker 2 (11:15):
Was a pretty crafty guide. General Basi turned out. He
worked both for the Axis and for the Allies.

Speaker 1 (11:26):
When the Americans invaded Sicily in nineteen forty three, Mussolini
was overthrown, so Genevies quickly switched asides and became an
interpreter and advisor to the US military government.

Speaker 2 (11:41):
They thought he was doing in a favor. What he
was really doing he was running a black marketeering scheme.
He was stealing supplies from army bases by corrupting army
officers and selling it on the black market in Italy.

Speaker 1 (12:05):
But for all his Sicilian success, Genovese was still wanted
for the card game killing, and the New York police
had new evidence implicating him. A man called Peter la
Temper had come forward claiming he had heard Genevese planning
the murder. He was now held in protective custody as

(12:27):
chief witness against Genevies. The American authorities finally caught up
with Genevies in Naples in August nineteen forty four. Genevies

(12:49):
was brought back to New York to face the murder charge,
but he had no intention of taking the rap. On
the sixteenth of January nineteen forty five, La Temper complained

(13:12):
that he was suffering from a gallstone problem. He was
given painkillers by his guards. Two hours later he was dead.
A toxicologist who had examined his body reported that he

(13:33):
had been given enough sedatives to kill eight horses. With
La Temper out of the way, there was no case
against Genevese, the judge told him, I cannot speak for

(13:54):
the jury, but I believe if there was a shred
of corroborating evidence, you would have begun condemn to the chair.
By devious means, you have thwarted justice time and time again.
Geneviz was acquitted. Vito Genovis was back on the streets,

(14:24):
but he was not the boss. The man in charge
was still his old rival, Frank Costello, and he was thriving.

Speaker 3 (14:34):
Frank Costello fashioned for himself as a man gangster. He
fashioned for himself as a businessman, sometimes bordering on aristocracy.

Speaker 1 (14:46):
He mixed with politicians, congressmen, journalists, authors, judges, cops, and
city councilors. With his connections, Costello developed a reputation as
the boss who could bridge the legitimate work and the bomb.
The Salvation Army even made him their vice chairman. Genevivez

(15:12):
could only watch from the sidelines as Costello became a
real New York player.

Speaker 3 (15:19):
Genevieves was intimidated by Costello's intelligence. He knew that Costello
could get with words what he could only get out
of a gun, and he was jealous of that.

Speaker 1 (15:33):
Such was his power that before a judge could be appointed,
it had to be cleared by Frank Costello.

Speaker 3 (15:40):
He didn't just know judges and DA's and politicians, he bought.

Speaker 2 (15:45):
Them potential nail of candidates in the Democratic Party went
to see him hat in hand asking for his blessings.

Speaker 3 (15:55):
He was an absolute corruptor.

Speaker 2 (16:01):
When the Nafia get control of a political judicial system,
when they're deciding what bills have passed, they're deciding how
justice is meted out, then you're in danger. Frank Costello,
even though he dressed well, looked, civilized, look cultivated, was
one of the most dangerous mafiosi in American history.

Speaker 1 (16:22):
Costello became known as the Prime Minister.

Speaker 3 (16:26):
The title was given to him by the media. They
made Frank Costello the American Winston Churchill in the underworld.

Speaker 5 (16:34):
That doesn't mean he was boss of bosses. There was
no such position, but as a prime minister is in
most countries, he was the first among equals, and sometimes
a little more equal than they were.

Speaker 1 (16:50):
Geneviez seemed to be out of it, but he realized
that Costello was making a big mistake. He preferred to
deal only with the big guys, but ignored the little guys.

Speaker 3 (17:04):
Frank Costello neglected the troops. Frank Costello only concerned himself
with the capos and the Campos and Satanian for captain.

Speaker 2 (17:17):
Members of crews that had been royal complained they had
been neglected that Costello didn't favor in.

Speaker 1 (17:27):
Genevieve saw this resentment as his opportunity to begin undermining
Costello's leadership.

Speaker 6 (17:35):
The soldiers, the button man in the family, knew that
Vito Genovitz was the real deal, whereas Costello was a
person who was a little out of touch. Vito Genovitz
never lost sight of the fact that he was a criminal,
and Frank Costello lost sight of that fact. Frank Costello

(17:55):
started to believe his own imagery.

Speaker 3 (17:57):
His own men.

Speaker 5 (18:00):
Already knew that Geneves wanted Frank's job, but he couldn't
take the job. The other bosses would have allowed that
as long as Frank was riding hype. Frank had the connections.
Genoves did not have the connection.

Speaker 2 (18:13):
So what he does is he begins to make sure
he's strong that his rackets are beginning to produce money.
So he has both money, and he has soldiers and
he has hit men in case it's a real showdown.

Speaker 1 (18:26):
Now Geneviez was waiting and hoping Costello would make a
wrong move. He wouldn't have to wait long. In nineteen fifty,
an ambitious Democrat senator from Tennessee named Stes Kafalfe headed

(18:49):
a committee to investigate organized crime in America. Question Cafalfe
called on more than six hundred gangsters, underworld figures, politicians
and policemen to testify before them. The country was transfixed
as the hearings hit the headlines and television channels.

Speaker 7 (19:10):
I remember the Keithalva investigations. I was a very young
lad and I remember actually watching those and it was
a real revelations. After we began to see that there
was these people among us criminals who were very well
organized and very deliberate in their activities and controlled a

(19:32):
great deal of the criminal activity in this country.

Speaker 1 (19:36):
Many of the witnesses refused to say anything, but not
Frank Costello. He agreed to answer questions.

Speaker 2 (19:45):
He thought he can on the witness stand and come
out as a gentleman, as a real businessman. And then
he had with kind of outlook or outward appearance that
he wouldn't look like a rough.

Speaker 1 (19:55):
View like Alhoda, and Costello build as the most influential
underworld leader in America, became the star attraction. But then
Costello made a miscalculation. He surprised everybody by insisting that

(20:17):
his face shouldn't be shown on television, and the committee
instructed the broadcasters to respect his request.

Speaker 4 (20:25):
The television has not done any part of mister Costello, heamon.

Speaker 1 (20:36):
The only option left open for the TV cruise was
to film his hands, and the subsequent images of Costello's
testimony became known as the hand ballet. Whenever the questions
about his criminal activities got too tough or too near
the knuckle, Costello would rub his palms together, tighten his fingers,

(20:57):
grip a glass of water drum on the table in
front of him will crumple in ten pieces of paper.
And although the television cameras were not allowed to show
Costello's face, the newsreel cameras and press photographers had no
such restrictions.

Speaker 8 (21:16):
That's the past, Galla regally, suffice the camera and let
you have a good look at the photographer says, as
a little boy, can you smile a little bit?

Speaker 4 (21:31):
Has this country come up to your anticipations?

Speaker 7 (21:35):
What have you?

Speaker 4 (21:35):
You're done for your country? Is a good citizen?

Speaker 7 (21:41):
Well, I don't know what you claim.

Speaker 4 (21:43):
What you mean by that, Well, you're looking back over
the years now out of that time when you became
a citizen, I mean now standing twenty odd years after that.
You must have in your mind something you've done that
you can speak off to your credit as an American citizen.
If so, what are they.

Speaker 6 (22:00):
Paid my tax.

Speaker 3 (22:05):
I pay my taxes? That was his answer. Now in
his mind he thought that was enough. He didn't think
that he had to join the army in the Marine corps.
I pay my taxes. Everybody pays the taxes they work
in for their country. But he was the original superstar
made by.

Speaker 1 (22:21):
Television, ridiculed and humiliated Costello finally refused to answer any
further questions and produced a note from his doctor, a certificate.

Speaker 3 (22:36):
Of a doctor will examine.

Speaker 8 (22:39):
Mister Costello this morning.

Speaker 5 (22:42):
All right, there no condition testify ore until I'm well enough.

Speaker 3 (22:51):
You refuse to testify our father.

Speaker 9 (22:53):
Absolutely. When I testify, I want to testify truthfully and
I can't and don't function.

Speaker 1 (23:07):
Costello had been publicly destroyed by the exposure, and he
left the Cafalva Committee hearings as the Justice Department's number
one target.

Speaker 5 (23:18):
Once he failed at ca faver, everybody went after him.
He was indicted for tax evasion.

Speaker 3 (23:25):
He was convicted.

Speaker 5 (23:28):
He was indicted for lying to Congress. When you are
the Prime Minister, the man who could work the miracles,
and all of a sudden you fall off your horse
and fall in your face, you are not Prime Minister anymore.

Speaker 3 (23:43):
Frank Costello paid the price for television by him appearing
in front of the Key falle Ford Committee hearing and
being televised. That was the beginning of the end of
Frank Hostello. In fact, that was the beginning of the
end of the mob. It took many, many years, and
Frank Hostello was the beginning of it. Because it brought
the attention of the general public to what the mob

(24:04):
was actually doing.

Speaker 1 (24:15):
But for one mobster, Costello's failure was good news, Vito Genevise,
and he was going to make the most of it.

Speaker 2 (24:28):
One of the things he does, he starts bumping off
killing Costello's hitmen.

Speaker 1 (24:39):
The first on his list was one of Costello's top hitmen,
William Williemore Moretti. Moretti had grown up with Costello in
East Harlem and was now a feared New Jersey racketeer
with his own army of sixty soldiers. He was also

(25:01):
one of Costello's strongest supporters. But this planned execution wasn't
just business. It was highly personal. Moretti had been promoted
to Costello's underboss, his second in command. This meant that
Genevise had been bumped down to just the captain of
his old crew. Geneviesse had chosen his target well. Moretti

(25:31):
was suffering from advanced syphilis, which was spreading to his brain.
This had the worrying effect of freeing up his speech,
and it was now feared that he would start talking
to the press. Genevies used this to his advantage because
of Moretti's condition. He approached the Commission the Matthew's Board

(25:55):
of Directors and asked for their permission for a mercy killing.
The Commission was set up by Lucky Luciano in nineteen
thirty one as a democratic system for dealing with all
the mob's affairs. It operated by strict rules. No boss

(26:19):
could be hit without the Commission's permission, and they gave
it to him. The hit would take place on the

(26:40):
morning of the fifth of October nineteen fifty one, as
ordinary New Yorkers went about their business. Genevivez had now

(27:09):
made it quite clear to Costello that he was coming
after him, and Costello was in no position to fight back.
He was locked in continual combat with the US authorities
over contempt of court and failure to pay his taxes.

(27:32):
Over the next six years, Costello was in and out
of jail. When he came out on bail in March
nineteen fifty seven, Geneviz finally decided to strike.

Speaker 3 (27:49):
Geneviz many many times trying to get the ok of
the Commission to kill Castello, but.

Speaker 1 (27:55):
The Commission wouldn't give it, so Geneviz decided to hit
Costello anyway. Genevievez now studied Costello's routine. The sixty six
year old Costello took cabs or walked to his various
meetings around the city like he'd always done, without the

(28:17):
aid of bodyguards or bulletproof cars. It made him an
easy target.

Speaker 5 (28:27):
Other bosses had an army of bodyguards around them. Costello said,
if they're going to kill you, that's the first ones though, bride.

Speaker 3 (28:38):
Genevievez gave the contract to Vincent Giganti, who was a
former prize fighter who became Genovis's chauffeur. He was a
real dug tough guy. I mean he can you had
the drop of a hat. He was the mirror image
over Genevieve. Genevieves liked them for that. He was just

(28:58):
a ruthless killer.

Speaker 1 (29:11):
On the evening of May the second, nineteen fifty seven,
Frank Costello enjoyed a dinner with some friends in an
Eastside restaurant. After the meal, he took a cab to
his apartment.

Speaker 2 (29:27):
Now, Costello lived in a very upscale apartment that overlooks
Central Park. It was known as the Majestic Apartment. Costello
was so sure of himself, even though he knew jene
As was around, and he came home one night, walked
into his lobby and he was met by Gigante.

Speaker 1 (29:52):
Gigante raised his gun and yelled, this is for you.
Frank Costello was covered with blood when he reached the

(30:13):
Roosevelt Hospital, but the bullet had only shaved his skull.
One of Genefi's top soldiers, Joe Valacci, later observed that
Gigante had wasted a whole month practicing.

Speaker 3 (30:31):
There's some debate on whether Gigante missed them on purpose
or he just missed them out of anepness. I choose
the latter. He just missed them. But there's a rule
on the mark. If you try and you miss, you
don't try again.

Speaker 1 (30:53):
The doorman of the Majestic identified Gigante as Costello's hitman.
Gigante quickly he gave himself up and was put on
trial for attempted murder. This was a very dangerous time
for Genevies. If Costello confirmed it was Gigante, police would

(31:15):
come after him. But at the trial, Costello observed the
Matthew rule of Omerta, the code of silence, and told
the jury that he didn't recognize Gigante. Gigante was acquitted,
and as he left the court, he walked over to Costello,

(31:37):
held out his hand and said thanks.

Speaker 4 (31:40):
Frank.

Speaker 1 (31:51):
Genevies knew that Costello alive posed a grave threat to him,
and he heard that he was secretly meeting with the
Lord High executioner of murder Incorporated Albert Anastasia. Guns, ice
picks and strangling groupes were his stock in trade.

Speaker 5 (32:09):
He was a tough, ruthless man, not at all like Castello,
who was his good friend. If there had been a
move against Castello with Anastasia still alive, there wouldnt have
been a counter attack by Anastasia.

Speaker 1 (32:27):
Genevez decided to strike first. The problem was getting to Anastasia.
He lived in a New Jersey mansion guarded by ferocious
dogs and barbed wire fences, and always traveled with bodyguards.

(32:52):
Genevez needed somebody on the inside, and he approached Carlo Gambino,
then an ambitious Anastasia lieutenant, and convinced him they would
both be better off with Anastasia dead. On the morning

(33:21):
of October twenty fifth, nineteen fifty seven, at ten fifteen
a m. Albert Anastasia walked into a barber shop in
Midtown Manhattan. His bodyguards parked the car in an underground
garage and then took a walk. Anastasia closed his eyes

(33:45):
and relaxed into the barber's chair. Two men in suits
with scarves covering their lower faces walked up behind him.
Anastasia was literally blasted out of the chair. Genevievez now

(34:14):
sprang into action. He immediately announced that he was the
head of the family and straightway he turned on his
old adversary, Frank Costello.

Speaker 2 (34:31):
Costello kne would have meant his time was over, his
reign was complete, that if he didn't surrender or advocate,
he was going to be assassinated.

Speaker 1 (34:42):
Genevive stripped Costello of all his gambling assets and interests
in Las Vegas, Florida, the Caribbean, and New York. He
only allowed Costello to live on the one condition that
he get out and never be involved with the rackets again.

Speaker 2 (35:02):
Castello sent the message to Vito genovesea done, Vito, it's yours.

Speaker 3 (35:07):
You're in control.

Speaker 1 (35:17):
Genevis had done it. He was now the boss of
the largest mafia family in New York, but he was
also in deep trouble. Blinded by ruthless ambition. He had
ordered two hits on two mafia leaders without the okay
from the governing body, the Commission, and he had done

(35:50):
something else that some Commission members found uncomfortable. Genevis had
also moved big time into drug dealing.

Speaker 2 (36:00):
They always thought that narcotics was a good deal for them.

Speaker 6 (36:02):
Mob within the Lucciato family, he was in charge of
drug trafficking.

Speaker 1 (36:12):
But Congress had recently passed tough new drug laws and
many mafia bosses were worried about the consequences.

Speaker 3 (36:21):
Drugs brought heat. And what I mean by heat is
that if you dealt drugs and you got backed, and
you're facing a lot of time in jail and you're
gonna roll, you're gonna become a rat.

Speaker 2 (36:35):
Well, you could get up to thirty years in prison.

Speaker 3 (36:38):
They felt that if they kept their hand out of
the drugs, they would be able to avoid that.

Speaker 1 (36:48):
The mafia heads around the country now feared that Genevese
was a loose cannon who didn't play by the rules,
and his drug trafficking operations could bring the FBI down
on them. To save his skin, Genevive requested a meeting
of the Commission to explain his recent actions in New York.

Speaker 2 (37:11):
The Commission was not supposed to call another national convention,
which will be held every five years for four more years,
but Genevesei insisted that the bosses from all the other
families and the New York families had to assemble because
of these important developments in New York, and he wanted
to know that he was the boss of a family.

(37:32):
So they picked the same place they had met the
previous year in a national convention, in a small town
in upstate New York known as Zappalacin.

Speaker 1 (37:47):
It would prove to be the biggest mistake of Genevese's life.
On November fourteenth, nineteen fifty seven, more than sixty senior Matthias,
with their advisors and bodyguards, traveled from Cuba, Italy and
from all over the United States to a hilltop estate

(38:08):
in a small, sleepy hamlet called Apalachin, one hundred and
eighty miles northwest of New York City and far from
the prying eyes and surveillance of the City Corps. Apalachin
was the home of mafia boss Joseph Barbara. His guests

(38:34):
would include all the most powerful members of the mafia
like Joe Bernano, Carmine Galante, Sam Giancana, and Joe Prafacci,
and at the head of the table don Vito Genevise.

Speaker 3 (38:57):
Appalachian Meeting was a meeting of mobs from all over
the country. Keep in mind that the mob as we
know today and as it was formed in nineteen thirty one,
was one hundred percent control by the five Families in
New York. All the other cities were ancillary that answered
to the New York Mobsters.

Speaker 1 (39:19):
But local detective Sergeant Edgar Crosswell of the New York
State Police had been watching the events.

Speaker 2 (39:27):
The local police noticed something strange. All these out of
town ism dozens of cars were pulling into one farmhouse
in the remote area.

Speaker 1 (39:38):
Crosswell's suspicions had been aroused when he noticed that Barbera
was booking up the local hotel. They had also been
tipped off by a local food supplier that Barbera had
ordered twenty pounds of steak, twenty pounds of veal cutlets,
and fifteen pounds of cold cuts that day. Crosswell had
been keeping a close eye on Barbera as he knew

(40:00):
he had mob connections. He called for backup.

Speaker 9 (40:17):
Well, we get the call shun, there's money people as
you can to Apple Lake and we have a thing
going on.

Speaker 1 (40:25):
Crosswell ordered his troopers to surround the house.

Speaker 9 (40:30):
We had a lot of people that they had thought
was beyund the world and we were to pick them up.

Speaker 1 (40:39):
And when the guests got the news, there was blind panic.
Some rushed to their cars, others fled through the woods,
ripping their silk suits against the brambles as they ran.

(41:04):
Crosswell sent his troopers in after them.

Speaker 9 (41:09):
We saw one fellaw. He was standing on the back
porch of a local house. But he wore a nice
Hamburg hat and he had a nice overcoat with a
fur collar, and we knew right away that he didn't
fit in. We went in and took control of him
and put him in the troop car with us.

Speaker 1 (41:32):
Crosswell and his men eventually managed to round up sixty
mafia members, including New York leaders Prefacci, Banano, Galante, and Gambino.

Speaker 9 (41:42):
Everybody had the same issues that they heard Marbera was sick,
and they all dropped in to see him, paid their respects.

Speaker 2 (41:53):
Here he had this obvious convention of Italian or Sicilian
American mobster, and you couldn't dismiss it just as a
casual meeting, and acclaim by all of them that they
went to visit a sick friend. Nobody could swallow that.

Speaker 1 (42:11):
The Justice Department believed that at least fifty escaped, including
Chicago boss Sam Giancana. Apalakin was the largest mafia meeting
ever rumbled by American police, and the mob would never

(42:34):
hold one of this size again. Far from Genevis's triumphant
moment announcing to the Commission his ascension to the head
of the Luciano crime family, he had exposed them all
to the authorities. As a direct result of Appalakin, a

(42:58):
federal grand jury found Untie Mafia members guilty of conspiracy
to commit perjury and to obstruct justice, and impose sentences
of between three and five years. Eventually, these were overturned
by the United States Court of Appeals on the basis
of insufficient evidence, but the damage had been done. Genevies

(43:22):
had awakened a sleeping giant, the FBI, and it hit
them like a bumpshell.

Speaker 7 (43:39):
I think the Appalachian Organized Crime Meeting, the meeting of
the bosses of America's organized crime in one location, really
brought home to the American public and to the FBI.
The magnitude of this problem.

Speaker 1 (43:55):
Up to this point, the director of the FBI, J. Egehoover,
I been reluctant to admit the existence of organized crime
in America. He had even written there was no such
thing as organized crime or the mafia, and the claim
that there was a national crime syndicate was belgney.

Speaker 10 (44:16):
All of a sudden, everything that they had been saying,
that there was no national organization, that crime was essentially
local and it was for local law enforcement to deal
with became obviously incorrect.

Speaker 7 (44:36):
They were so brazen, they were so bold and so
powerful that they would actually have a meeting, much as
any large legitimate American cooperation would meet, to decide internal issues,
if you will, of their organization, their direction, what they
wanted to do in the way of a legitimate.

Speaker 3 (44:53):
Company would do.

Speaker 7 (44:54):
This really imprinted itself on the American Republic and certainly
on the FBI.

Speaker 10 (45:01):
That was it for the FBI. I mean, there was
a moment where it was absolutely patently clear that they
had a role to do that they had not been performing.

Speaker 3 (45:10):
That was it.

Speaker 1 (45:16):
All this changed after Appalachin, the FBI will galvanized into action.
Hoover immediately commissioned a special report to confirm whether the
Mafia actually existed. It declared, the truth of the matter
is the available evidence makes it impossible to deny logically

(45:38):
the existence of a criminal organization known as the Mafia,
which for generations as plague the laurabiding citizens of Sicily, Italy,
and the United States.

Speaker 7 (45:55):
After the Appalachian Meeting, the intelligence gathering about organized crime
became very much institutionalized inside the FBI. Most of the
investigations were intelligence investigations where we gathered information about who

(46:15):
they were and the kinds of activities they were involved with.

Speaker 1 (46:29):
As a direct result of the appallach In raid, the
Federal Bureau of Narcotics was instructed to target Vito Genovese
in their fight against drugs.

Speaker 5 (46:43):
What about the government's charge that you're the right man,
that you're the number one man in the narcotics.

Speaker 2 (46:48):
The tags are fantastic and the victims.

Speaker 9 (46:51):
Have you ever known anyone in the narcotics recket have known?

Speaker 2 (46:54):
I never did.

Speaker 1 (47:06):
On April seventeenth, nineteen fifty nine, the man who had
gotten away with murder for so long was finally nailed
in a Manhattan Federal Court, Don Vito Genevise was fined
twenty thousand dollars and sentenced to fifteen years in prison
for masterminding an international narcotic syndicate that smuggled heroin and

(47:26):
cocaine into the United States.

Speaker 2 (47:33):
Never underestimate the menace that Vido Jenevese left even with
his departure. It was he who was so instrumental, one
of the key players in bringing in the scourge of
heroin narcotics into America. Without him, it might never have occurred.

(47:54):
He opened up these opportunities that the mafia would use
widespread distribution into the inner cities of America, the biggest cities,
New York, Chicago. For the first time, you had the
mass appeal of a narcotics contagion that enveloped the country.

(48:16):
And one person who has to bath under that responsibility
is Don Vito Genovesa.

Speaker 1 (48:31):
Vito Genovise continued to rule his organization unchallenged from his
prison cell. He died there on February the fourteenth, nineteen
sixty nine, of a heart attack. His legacy was that

(48:52):
he left behind the most powerful mafia organization in America
that bears his name. To this day, the Vito Genovese
family continues to make millions amidst criminal activities, but he
left another more damaging legacy to the mob. Genevieve had

(49:12):
exposed the mafia to the FBI. The Appalachin disaster would
signal the beginning of their crackdown on organized crime in America.