Tales of twentieth century organized crime, particularly the evolution of the American Mafia, are loaded with folklore and theories. Although gangster Alphonse Capone may be the most prevalent in our collective pop culture psyche… more stories have surrounded the man known as “Lucky” Luciano. Many of the accounts behind New York’s most infamous master criminal [...]
Monday night on the History Channel’s reality series Pawn Stars – a would-be seller walked in and claimed to have Charles “Lucky” Luciano’s signet ring. In case you missed this episode, here’s the lowdown: Pawn shop owner Rick Harrison was approached by a man holding an ornate gold ring, and ready to give an elaborate [...]
Ol’ Blue Eyes, Chairman of the Board… and Boudoir Singer? An icon, Frank Sinatra will always have a place in the collective hearts of music, film an pop culture fans. Nobody had a voice like that and few held the power-of-association the kid from New Jersey grew up wielding. Many rumors have circulated throughout his [...]
Sex, drugs, corruption… all in a days work when a career path leads to the pimp game. But also, such an unsavory cocktail of hustling can be part of the job for a ‘dirty’ cop too. You’re about to meet Michael Gourdine, and this man has been on both sides of the law as a [...]
Who? Francesco Castiglia, aka Frank Costello. It’s fair to say Costello was one of the mob’s original big four – along with Luciano, Meyer Lansky and Bugsy Siegel – going back even before they, and others, orchestrated the creation of“The Commission” . Although he certainly participated in street crime during his youth, Costello grew to understand [...]
Much information regarding today’s topic is available via archived newspapers, police records of the time, and a few highly-detailed books . This column will serve as a little cheat sheet of sorts, giving an overview of the notorious Murder Inc., the major players, and sensational – at times very bizarre – trials and outcomes. Part [...]
November 10, 1931: What? Nine men were rounded up in a raid conducted at the Hotel Franconia, located on West Seventy-Second Street in Manhattan. The property was owned by infamous criminal mastermind (and mentor to many-a -young gangster) Arnold Rothstein. Why? While arrests on gaggles of gangsters in a single swoop was certainly not uncommon [...]
