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Did the US Mafia actually start in New Orleans? · Ridiculous History

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  Speaker 1: Ridiculous History is a production of I Heart Radio. You
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  Speaker 1: come into my house on a day my daughter is
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  Speaker 1: to be married. You who asked me to do murder
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  Speaker 1: for money? Welcome to the show. Ridiculous Historians thinks so
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  Speaker 1: much for tuning in circumstances. Find us recording on a
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  Speaker 1: lovely almost one hundred degree morning here in Atlanta, Georgia.
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  Speaker 1: I'm Ben, I'm no Ben? Was that from Dirty Harry? Uh?
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  Speaker 1: That is a quote from Don Vito Corleone in The Godfather. Yes,
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  Speaker 1: famously portrayed by Clint Eastwood in the film Dirty Hair
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  Speaker 1: working under his face? Miss pseudonym Marlon Brando, which is
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  Speaker 1: a pretty fake name if you think about. You know
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  Speaker 1: who only uses their real name here in the United States.
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  Speaker 1: That's our good friend and super producer Casey Pegram Viva
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  Speaker 1: La Bush, Viva Bush. Wait. Wait wait did we say
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  Speaker 1: your name yet? I don't know? Okay, Well you're no,
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  Speaker 1: I am no, that's true? What's my name that? I am?
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  Speaker 1: Not a member of LaCOSA Nostro, But I do enjoy
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  Speaker 1: a good mob flick from time to time. And rewatching
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  Speaker 1: the Sopranos lately got my start doing it on an
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  Speaker 1: airplane where it was censored in a hilarious way. Um,
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  Speaker 1: So I watched one through three of season one in
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  Speaker 1: that fashion, and then once the swears started getting back
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  Speaker 1: in the mix, it was borderline shocking. Ben. Let me
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  Speaker 1: tell you, these guys really love their fs and Jeff's
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  Speaker 1: I still have it. I still haven't watched Sopranos all
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  Speaker 1: the way through? Are you kidding me? Wow? It's really good.
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  Speaker 1: I know how it is. Watched the last episode. It
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  Speaker 1: ends with a Journey song and a cut to black.
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  Speaker 1: And that's not a spoiler. Well, it can't be a spoiler.
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  Speaker 1: We have statutes established for this. I think it's it's
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  Speaker 1: past the statute of limitations. Here's the thing about the
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  Speaker 1: statue limitation of spoilers. Yes it exists, But are you
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  Speaker 1: still being a bit of a schmuck if you do
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  Speaker 1: it and don't prepare someone for something that they're enjoying
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  Speaker 1: so much content out there in the world. That's weird.
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  Speaker 1: Are you saying that you're doing a complete one eight
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  Speaker 1: from your previously passionately completely opposite stance. Now, listen, Ben,
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  Speaker 1: we were talking specifically about the ending of Loss that
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  Speaker 1: I did not even actually spoil. I was accused of
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  Speaker 1: spoiling it. But the thing I said was not in
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  Speaker 1: fact a spoiler at all. I believe in that situation,
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  Speaker 1: which was probably more than a few years, because yeah,
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  Speaker 1: in that situation, Um, my position is that the creators
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  Speaker 1: of Laws spoiled the ending more than any Yeah, exactly.
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  Speaker 1: But but I am a huge fan of mafia films,
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  Speaker 1: a lot of crime films, but mafia films in particular,
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  Speaker 1: and off air, we were kicking around this idea, Casey,
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  Speaker 1: what are some of your favorite crime films, specifically organized
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  Speaker 1: crime called a no straw mafia. Well, then when you
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  Speaker 1: asked me about this, my mind was completely blank because
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  Speaker 1: the first thing that jumped to my head was Scorsese's Casino,
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  Speaker 1: which is far from obscure, but it is. It is
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  Speaker 1: definitely one of my favorites, along with Good Fellows. But
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  Speaker 1: you know, if you if you want to go a
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  Speaker 1: little deeper cut, I would say, check out one of
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  Speaker 1: the films of Jean Pierre Melville, like uh Les circ
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  Speaker 1: Lar Rouge or maybe Bob La Flambert. What about Las
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  Speaker 1: Samurai isn't then that's me and El and uh yeah,
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  Speaker 1: that's a good one as well, Casey. On the Case
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  Speaker 1: Film Edition man, we should do that more often. That'd
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  Speaker 1: be cool. Yeah, if it comes up, Yeah, just let
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  Speaker 1: us know, Casey, if the spirit moves you. I don't
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  Speaker 1: ever want it to be something where you feel stressed, like,
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  Speaker 1: oh crap, I have to come up with a movie homework?
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  Speaker 1: Who cares about homework? What's the crime film you like?
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  Speaker 1: I'll tell you what I watched recently was The French Connection.
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  Speaker 1: I've never seen him before. It is a um oh gosh,
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  Speaker 1: William Friedkin William fried Kent film um famously directed The
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  Speaker 1: Exorcist and uh, what else is he directed? Was really great,
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  Speaker 1: which I've not seen Santa. He also did a trucking
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  Speaker 1: a movie about like like, what's it called, oh, Sorcerer Sorcerer,
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  Speaker 1: which has a tangerine dream sound track that you're like,
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  Speaker 1: but um, the thing that was so cool about French
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  Speaker 1: Connection is it's very naturalistic. It's just very like. Something
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  Speaker 1: about it makes you feel like you're really in the room.
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  Speaker 1: I think a lot of it was improvised. Um. There's
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  Speaker 1: this incredible chase sequence where Gene Hackman is chasing a
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  Speaker 1: New York subway train that's at the portion where it's
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  Speaker 1: on an elevated track and he's in this like car
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  Speaker 1: that he's common deer, and he's driving underneath the track
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  Speaker 1: and it's just such a dynamic, cool, badass chase sequence,
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  Speaker 1: really really frenetic, high energy film. You know. Robert de Niro,
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  Speaker 1: I thought, did a good job taking the directorial position
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  Speaker 1: with a bronx tail. Do you guys remember that one?
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  Speaker 1: I never saw that. Actually, it was pretty it's it's
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  Speaker 1: it triggers some nostalgia for me, which may be part
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  Speaker 1: of the reason I liked it. Another old one that
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  Speaker 1: I really enjoyed was The Big Heat. That's like nineteen fifties.
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  Speaker 1: I think The Big Heat is for its slaying. Actually,
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  Speaker 1: he's a great German filmmaker that came over to the
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  Speaker 1: States after Gebel's offered him the German film industry the
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  Speaker 1: whole thing, yeah on a platter. Yeah uh, and he
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  Speaker 1: thought maybe not and he fled Germany that night. It's uh.
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  Speaker 1: The Big Heat is pretty dark as fifty noirs go,
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  Speaker 1: but it's it's worth a watch, especially if it's something
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  Speaker 1: that you've seen pop up on some film list and
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  Speaker 1: you've you've never quite gotten around too. I'd say it's
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  Speaker 1: worth a watch. It's surprisingly violent for the time today's
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  Speaker 1: show is about organized crime, specifically the mafia, specifically the
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  Speaker 1: Italian American Mafia. However, it is not about New York City. No,
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  Speaker 1: It's about another place entirely ben that does have a
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  Speaker 1: reputation for revelry, it does have a reputation for seediness,
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  Speaker 1: a certain element, but I've never in my life associated
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  Speaker 1: it with organized crime until he started looking into this topic.
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  Speaker 1: It's a place referred to often as the Big Easy
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  Speaker 1: No All No La or New Orleans or New Orleans,
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  Speaker 1: that's correct. Yeah, New Orleans, beautiful city, home to almost
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  Speaker 1: a parallel branch of American history. You know, one thing
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  Speaker 1: that is confusing too many kids growing up in the
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  Speaker 1: United States outside of Louisiana is the concept of parishes
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  Speaker 1: rather than counties. Because Louisiana has parishes, and that is
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  Speaker 1: a that is one of the many vestigial traditions carried
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  Speaker 1: down from its history as a French city of French
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  Speaker 1: territory or region. And of course, this city is home
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  Speaker 1: to so many amazing things that are influential, not just
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  Speaker 1: in the US but in the world entire and it
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  Speaker 1: is also home to the mafia. As we found out.
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  Speaker 1: You see many of us myself included in the past,
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  Speaker 1: would reasonably assume that the mafia, the Italian American mafia
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  Speaker 1: specifically had its roots in the Big Apple, New York City, NYC.
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  Speaker 1: Because this is where you see The Godfather being set,
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  Speaker 1: this is where the five great crime families are based,
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  Speaker 1: and this is where millions and millions of Italian immigrants
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  Speaker 1: originally came. They first came to New York City, Statue
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  Speaker 1: of Liberty, Ellis Island, the whole nine. In reality, though,
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  Speaker 1: the first Italian American mafia came from New Orleans. That
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  Speaker 1: that was the first one, and it's also the site
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  Speaker 1: of the first major let's say, maybe a conflict, but
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  Speaker 1: mafia incident, mafia murder. Yeah, it's true, Ben And and
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  Speaker 1: the thing is the actual Like, first on the list
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  Speaker 1: for immigration from Italy was places like Argentina and Brazil,
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  Speaker 1: which I would never have really considered either because they
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  Speaker 1: had similar cultures to what the Italian immigrants were used
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  Speaker 1: to in their homeland. Uh, New Orleans became a popular
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  Speaker 1: second choice. Yeah, this was during the eighteen hundreds, mainly
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  Speaker 1: because there was already so much trade with New Orleans
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  Speaker 1: and cities and regions in Brazil and Argentina. This is
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  Speaker 1: weird because it already began to trigger some xenophobia amongst
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  Speaker 1: people who were not Sicilian or not Italian. The New
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  Speaker 1: Orleans Times reported back in eighteen sixty nine that parts
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  Speaker 1: of the city were overrun with get this quote, well
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  Speaker 1: known and notorious Sicilian murderers, counterfeitters, and burglars who in
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  Speaker 1: the last month have formed a sort of general co
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  Speaker 1: partnership or stock company for the plunder and disturbance of
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  Speaker 1: the city. That's not the that's not the kind of
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  Speaker 1: elements you want coming into your city. I mean, that's
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  Speaker 1: how you would describe a mafia if you had never
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  Speaker 1: heard of the mafia before. That's true, but this is
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  Speaker 1: a time where this is very new, right for for
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  Speaker 1: the US. They didn't know about the crime families in Italy.
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  Speaker 1: You know, there was no Internet. It wasn't like super
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  Speaker 1: common knowledge. This was like a very new thing that
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  Speaker 1: was kind of invading their community. And this sort of
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  Speaker 1: tension continues building between the average the squares, the non
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  Speaker 1: criminal citizens, the authorities in New Orleans, and the mafia.
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  Speaker 1: It reaches ahead and what it started to describe this earlier.
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  Speaker 1: The first major incident, the first murder occurs on October
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  Speaker 1: fift There are probably other ones, but this is the
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  Speaker 1: first one we know about. New Orleans Police Superintendent David
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  Speaker 1: Hennessy is assassinated, basically murdered execution style, and then public
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  Speaker 1: outrage and hysteria breaks. Hundreds of Sicilians get arrested, eventually
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  Speaker 1: nineteen or fingered for the crime, but then they were acquitted. Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: and just before that happened Giuseppe Esposito, who was one
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  Speaker 1: of the first known Sicilian mafia members to come to
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  Speaker 1: the United States. He actually came to New York um.
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  Speaker 1: And this is after he and six of his cronies
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  Speaker 1: murdered the chancellor and a vice chancellor of a province
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  Speaker 1: in Sicily, in addition to eleven very very influential and
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  Speaker 1: rich landowners. And he was arrested in New Orleans in
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  Speaker 1: eighty one, and then he was extradited to Italy. And
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  Speaker 1: New Orleans is becoming a hotbed of this kind of activity,
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  Speaker 1: and it's sort of starting to bubble over with this
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  Speaker 1: incident that you're describing, ben and led to some pretty
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  Speaker 1: serious consequences, didn't it. Yeah. So on October fifte David
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  Speaker 1: Hennessy has murdered nineteen, As they said, hundreds of Sicilians
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  Speaker 1: arrested nineteen go to trial, but they're acquitted. And this
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  Speaker 1: makes everyone else in the city say someone was bribing them,
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  Speaker 1: someone was scaring the witnesses. So the citizens of New Orleans,
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  Speaker 1: the squares I mentioned earlier, organize a lynch mob and
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  Speaker 1: they kill eleven of those nineteen people who got away.
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  Speaker 1: Two of them were hanged, nine of them were shot,
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  Speaker 1: and the other eight escaped. We're not sure what happened
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  Speaker 1: to them. But this, along with that criminal you're describing, Knowle,
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  Speaker 1: gives us a very different image of New Orleans. You know.
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  Speaker 1: We we imagine the many other problems the city happen
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  Speaker 1: at the time, but we don't really think of imported
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  Speaker 1: Italian criminal enterprise. You know. We know that there has
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  Speaker 1: been uh fairly rich research on this, especially by the
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  Speaker 1: Sicilian historian Salvatore Lupo. In his History of the Mafia,
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  Speaker 1: he talks about how you can trace the spread of
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  Speaker 1: the mafia in the US directly to Sicilian immigration to
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  Speaker 1: New Orleans, and by the end of the nineteenth century,
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  Speaker 1: New Orleans had the largest Sicilian population in the US,
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  Speaker 1: which surprised me. I guess I just always assumed it
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  Speaker 1: would have been New York. I would have too, and
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  Speaker 1: apparently as well. Been. One reason this was the case
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  Speaker 1: is the state of Louisiana was working with sugar planters
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  Speaker 1: to replace slave labor, so that kind of immigration, opening
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  Speaker 1: up that kind of immigration was part of that effort. Yes,
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  Speaker 1: so they've got booming agricultural business, right, this is a
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  Speaker 1: world class port. That alone is very attractive to the mafia.
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  Speaker 1: But if you throw in the disorganized city functions and
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  Speaker 1: the corrupt administration, boom boom boom, we've got a mafia
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  Speaker 1: moth heading toward an illicit flame. Very nice image there been,
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  Speaker 1: uh and that flame ended up being the French Quarter
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  Speaker 1: and Bourbon Street specifically. So when you think of Bourbon
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  Speaker 1: Street anyone that's been that's visited New Orleans, you kind
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  Speaker 1: of think of it as being the trashy, kind of
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  Speaker 1: tourist d spot that's not necessarily where you want to
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  Speaker 1: hit if you're like kind of going for off the
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  Speaker 1: beaten path kind of stuff. But the original Bourpons of
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  Speaker 1: what led to that reputation, the original Bourbon Street as
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  Speaker 1: kind of like you know, established by some of these uh,
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  Speaker 1: these Sicilian mobsters was a just absolute smorgue sport of
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  Speaker 1: things like jazz clubs, speakeasies, restaurantsnudy bars, strip clubs, all
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  Speaker 1: that kind of stuff. And it was all run and
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  Speaker 1: operated or at least largely people were getting a cut
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  Speaker 1: that were members of this mafia group. Yeah. Richard Campanella,
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  Speaker 1: the author of Bourbon Street, a History, has it this
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  Speaker 1: way if he he's on the same page with us here,
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  Speaker 1: because he says they didn't necessarily control all of Bourbon Street,
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  Speaker 1: but they had this behind the scenes influential consortium. You know,
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  Speaker 1: imagine imagine it like this. You don't own every house
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  Speaker 1: of ill repute on Bourbon Street, but you do coordinate
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  Speaker 1: what they can charge for things, and they do pay
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  Speaker 1: you a certain percentage and you help keep people's turf
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  Speaker 1: boundaries clear. It's that same thing you see in like
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  Speaker 1: a show like Sopranos, where uh, the mob of underbosses
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  Speaker 1: or some of the what do they call him, like
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  Speaker 1: enforcers I guess, go door to door to businesses, collecting
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  Speaker 1: collections what they call it. And that means that the
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  Speaker 1: mob has a hand in offering protection to these businesses
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  Speaker 1: as long as they're given a cut. So they sort
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  Speaker 1: of set the tone, I guess for for the kind
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  Speaker 1: of businesses that are lucrative and that are going to
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  Speaker 1: generate enough money to get them, keep them paid, and
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  Speaker 1: keep them happy. Right. Yeah, And this is this is
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  Speaker 1: an interesting way to look at We've got this quote
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  Speaker 1: from Campanilla. He's describing the extent of Bourbon Street. You know,
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  Speaker 1: he says, thirteen blocks in the quarter were more block
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  Speaker 1: in another place. Half his residential halfs commercial, couple hundred businesses.
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  Speaker 1: This is where he gets to a specific example of
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  Speaker 1: mafia involvement. He says, quote, you'd have bars, some clubs,
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  Speaker 1: a restaurant, and something completely unrelated like an electrical store.
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  Speaker 1: And in the back rooms of many bars and clubs,
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  Speaker 1: you might have a pinball machine that really was controlled
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  Speaker 1: by the mob They paid off the bartender to make
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  Speaker 1: sure only they got the money. There were these bookmakers,
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  Speaker 1: poker machines, illegal gambling. Meanwhile, a legitimate bar was up
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  Speaker 1: and running and the bartenders might not have anything to
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  Speaker 1: do with the mobsters. But make no mistake, a number
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  Speaker 1: of owners were out and out mobsters. So you could
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  Speaker 1: have like Casey could have uh, you know, crazy Casey's
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  Speaker 1: crawfish and jazz club, and it could be totally legitimate
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  Speaker 1: and on the up and up, but there could be
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  Speaker 1: a back room where people go to gamble and it's
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  Speaker 1: just sort of like contracted out to the mob. Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: and the mobsters get points on those poker games, illegal
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: poke games, or they're like out now controlled by the
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  Speaker 1: mom So for sure. Uh, this is a little bit
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: off topic, but really funny. I was in Brooklyn recently
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: and I went to the most Brooklyn establishment I've ever
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  Speaker 1: been to in my life. It was a combination laundromat,
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  Speaker 1: pinball emporium and bar. Probably controlled by the mob. You think,
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: so one would assume, well, we don't know if it's
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  Speaker 1: We also can't profile mobs. We have to be fair
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: to organize crime. It could be Irish mob. It's also true.
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  Speaker 1: I don't know. I'm just saying, So, where's the origin
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: of the word mafia come from and mafia versus mob? Well,
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  Speaker 1: if we check the handy dandy last minute etymology, dive
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  Speaker 1: mafia originally derives from a Sicilian adje mafiu so, which
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  Speaker 1: roughly translated means swagger, oldness or bravado got it. And
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  Speaker 1: then the idea of abo the mob refers to literally
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  Speaker 1: like a gang, you know, a group of individuals that
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: have a common purpose. Let's look at that. That's interesting,
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: mafia versus mob. So the mafia is gonna be Italian
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: because as that Sicilian origin, but the mob can refer
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: to other organized groups or organized crime in general, so
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: like corrupt teamsters could be a mob. So a mob
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: is not necessarily the mafia, but mob is also a
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: synonym or nickname for the Italian mafia. Interesting, it is interesting.
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  Speaker 1: So the mafia would specifically refer to this idea of
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  Speaker 1: la cosa nostra, which is something we've talked about off
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  Speaker 1: Mike plenty, right, this thing of ours omerta is the code.
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  Speaker 1: There's a gradient, Campanella says, from a proper noun to
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: a common noun. So he breaks it down saying, there's
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: mafia with a capital M, and then there's the mob
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: capital M, and then there's just no capital M mob,
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: and then there's mobsters, there's organized crime, and they're all
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: these affiliated parties. So he says, it's challenging and one
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: must be careful about the terminology. And it's interesting because
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: the government of Louisiana did not originally settle on mass
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: immigration of Sicilians. They apparently tried to recruit people from China,
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: they tried to recruit people from Scandinavia, Greece, Portugal, Spanish,
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: but they were able to entice Sicilian populations because in
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  Speaker 1: post unification Sicily there were a ton of reasons for
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: people to get out. Life just wasn't super great. However,
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: as this is a history show, we have to admit
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: there is a compelling reason that people think of the
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  Speaker 1: mafia in New York now and not in New Orleans,
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  Speaker 1: and that's because it's not near as prominent now. Because
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: you know, we we said that those first inklings of
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: problems began in the eighteen hundreds. By the eighteen seventies,
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: the Matrungka crime family has already been established in New Orleans.
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  Speaker 1: They're collecting tributes their engagement racketeering, prostitution, extortion and so on.
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  Speaker 1: But they're not the only game in town. And fighting
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  Speaker 1: is already breaking out in the eighteen eighties between the
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  Speaker 1: crime families. They want to see who controls the waterfront, right,
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  Speaker 1: and we talked this is ultimately what led to Hennessy's
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  Speaker 1: death and then later the Lynch Mob, and it gave
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  Speaker 1: the mafia a lesson that they never forgot because in
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  Speaker 1: Sicily there's a bit of a stereotype, but in other
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: in Italy overall, at the time criminals could act without
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: much regard for authorities or societies. But now they learned, Okay,
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  Speaker 1: there limits to what we can get away with here.
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: And this a lot of people will tell you that
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: this is what set the Italian American mafia on its
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: on its course of following strict rules against targeting law
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: enforcement outside of very very special circumstances. Don't want to
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: keep it quiet absolutely. I mean, it's a big deal,
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: even in like these crime shows and movies when you
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: kill a policeman or somebody that's a member of law enforcement,
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: because that that is going to open you up for retaliation.
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: And ultimately you want to keep things as copasetic as
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: possible and as contained as possible so you can continue operating,
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: because at the end of the day, it's a business,
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: it's not They're not just there to wreak mass havoc
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: and terror and terrorize the community. They actually want to
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: kind of be loved a little bit and revered in
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: some of these communities and have shop keep is feel
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: like they're kind of getting something for their money, you
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: know what I mean, when they're paying these collections. Sure
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: it's a little bit of a pain, but at the
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: end of the day, they're being protected from the enemy,
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: from the other you know, crime families, or from anyone
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: that would maybe rob them. Because you're part of the community,
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: right right, it's a it's almost a parallel branch of society,
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: sort of like how the yaquaza will give out aid
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: to victims of natural disasters. Uh, the mafia will also
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: aid members of the community when it feels expedient and
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: advantageous for business. This is the crazy part though. So
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: we have all these Sicilians in the French quarter, right,
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: and the French quarters not the biggest quarter. So eventually,
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: say the nineteen thirties and forties, a lot of Sicilians
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: who live there begin to move out. And of course,
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: being a Sicilian it's silly that we have to say this,
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: but just to cover our bases. Being a Sicilian American
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: obviously does not automatically make you a member of the
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: mob of not only the cool ones. Yeah, you gotta
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: you gotta be made. You have to be a main man. Yeah,
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: you have to be made. So it's weird because during
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: the twentieth century, the nineteen hundreds, it seems like the
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: Sicilian population was becoming more and more suburban. And now
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: they're only maybe a handful of Sicilian residents or people
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: of Sicilian heritage living in the French Quarter, that's right.
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: And uh, not only that, probably even fewer um made
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: men that are living in uh in New Orleans and
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: continuing to do any kind of Kosa Nostra associated business
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: because you know, the mafia still exists. It is a thing.
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: You definitely don't hear as much about it because it
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: seems like because of FBI UH changes in the way
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: they can prosecute organized crime, it's a little bit more
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: difficult to get away with it, like the Rico Act
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: and such. But you know, I mean there's I'm sure
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: they just kind of adapted and changed the game a
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: little bit and try and stay a little bit more
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: under the radar. And we do have we do have
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: at least one example, right of a famous Sicilian mafio
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: so from New Orleans. Yeah, that's right. Carlos Marcella kind
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: of became the head honcho UM in New Orleans organized crime. Uh.
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: He was born to a Sicilian family in Tunisia. His
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: name was Carlo Gero Mina Coori. Ohh, and we know
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: him as Carlos little Man, that's right. And he immigrated
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: directly to Louisiana in nineteen eleven, and he turned to
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: crime before he was even a teenager and already began
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: working in the French Quarter, which at that point was
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: the cities little Italy, right right. He joined the Matrona family.
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: We mentioned earlier that they were also known as the
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: Black Hand or Sicilian black Hand, and he, along with
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: the rest of the crime family, controlled operations at New
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: Orleans Docks. So they were smuggling prostitution, uh, drug trafficking,
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: gambling and then of course as soon as prohibition kicks in,
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: you know what that means money, money, monde legging, the speaker,
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: speakeasies and all that stuff. And that's that's the kind
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: of thing you think about. You can picture in New
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: Orleans during that time. It's like these kind of smoky
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: underground lounges with like jazz singers and uh, you know,
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: cocktails flowing and all that stuff. Right, And Marcelo sort
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: of has a story that that could be an episode
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: of its own. You know, he he got into and
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: out of jail. He had been arrested and beat raps before.
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: Like it's it's surprising. I would be surprised if there
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: was not already a film about his life. But even
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: today he is the subject of speculation and conspiracy theories,
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: and you'll hear that he is one of the people
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: who was part of the conversation that led to the
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: assassination of President JFK in November of nineteen. That's right,
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: because Robert Kennedy was a big proponent of bringing down
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: Marcelo because of the fact that he had done such
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: a good job of avoiding any kind of consequences to
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: his career and organized crime. In fact, I don't think
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: it was until uh the age of like seventy two
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: that he got convicted of any kind of felonies. So, yeah,
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: you're right, then maybe he gets his own episode for sure.
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: I love the conspiracy angle and the fact that Robert, Yeah,
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: there's Jack Rubies tied up in all of this and
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: Dallas and Lee Harvey Oswald all that stuff, big central
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: figure in the whole JFK thing. But that is for
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: another day. That is for a another day. However, no
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: I propose that this counts as our Louisiana episode. It
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: has to. It was definitely about Louisiana, AM and Louisiana.
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: New Orleans have been on on my mind, in particular
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: given the threatening weather that's coming through as this podcast
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: is recorded and releases. We want to wish everybody out
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: there best of luck, Stay safe, stay dry, stay connected,
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: have have a plan. I've got some friends in New
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: Orleans who have been keeping me up to date. Until
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: just a few days ago they thought they might have
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: to evacuate. Everybody was on the edge of their seat.
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: So if you are listening from New Orleans, please say
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: hello to your fair metropolis. Love it, miss it. Always
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: want to go check out the city and let us
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: know some of your favorite New Orleans stories. You don't
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: have to be from there to tell us. It doesn't
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: have to be a huge historical moment. What's a good
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: time you had in New Orleans. I've only been the
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: ones and the weather was terrible. The whole time was
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: rainy and dreary, But I loved every second and it
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: was so much fun and I really hope to go
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: back again soon. Um yeah, you can write us all
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: that stuff at Ridiculous at I Heart radio dot com.
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: You can check us out on our Facebook group, the
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: Ridiculous Historians, where you can interact with your other members.
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: There was a really good one. Somebody posted a meme today.
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: Uh it was. It was a very meta meme because
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: it was an image of Christopher Columbus and his crew
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: and it says, I don't steal memes, I discover them.
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: I saw that one. Yes, you can also find us
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: on Instagram and Twitter. I'm at Ben Pollan HSW on Twitter.
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: You can see my various work and non work adventures
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: on Instagram where I am at Ben Boland. I don't
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: really do the Twitter, but you can find me on
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: Instagram at how Now. Noel Brown big big thanks as
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: always to Casey le Bush pegram Big thanks to our
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: friend of the show, Christopher Haciotis, who we need to
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: have on. Uh it's been too long, it has been
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: to Those are some of my favorite episodes that we
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: do with Christopher. Thanks to Alex Williams, who compose our
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: theme research associate Gabe Luzier for always being a boss.
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: And thanks to you, Ben for um not having me
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: whacked yet. Omert is the code. I am a legitimate
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: businessman working in imports, so I guess the best thing
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: to say is not my department, no, A welcome, We'll
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: see you next time Fox. For more podcasts from My
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast,
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.