In the 1920's, high level gangsters like Lucky Luciano and Meyer Lansky had a plan to bring some semblance of order to the underworld. Together with a few other kingpins, they formed the Syndicate: a collection of the most powerful organized crime figures across the country that operated like a corporation with a board of directors that voted on everything r ... Show More
May 26
The Rise and Fall of The Yakuza Devil's Child
Mako Nishimura graduated from high school delinquent to kamikaze biker gang, street tough and, eventually, a fully made member of a yakuza syndicate - the first (or perhaps second?) woman to do so. Nishimura made her gang huge amounts of cash selling women plus selling, and takin ... Show More
1h 2m
May 19
The Cartel Del Noreste's Kingdom of Terror w/ Andrew Glazer
Nuevo Laredo is one of the most feared cartel cities in Mexico, a place where disappearances, gun battles, and corruption became part of daily life as the Cartel del Noreste, or CDN, tightened its grip on the border. Born from the remnants of the brutal Zetas organization, CDN tu ... Show More
1 h
Sep 2020
“Lord High Executioner” Pt. 2: Albert Anastasia
During the 1930s, Albert Anastasia was the leader of Murder Inc., the mafia’s crew of contract killers. But after World War II, he shot his way to the top to become the boss of one of New York’s Five Families. Unfortunately for him, the Feds were more determined than ever to keep ... Show More
45m 4s
Jul 2023
The Italian Squad: A Group of 1920s NYPD Immigrant Detectives Who Fought the Rise of the Mafia
The story begins in Sicily, on Friday, March 12th, 1909. Three gunshots thundered in the night, and then a fourth. Two men fled, and investigators soon discovered who they had killed: Giuseppe Petrosino, the legendary American detective whose exploits in New York were celebrated ... Show More
28m 5s
Nov 2020
S1 Ep5: Prohibition Murderers: The Karpis/Barker Gang
Thanks to Prohibition, criminal gangs were a dime a dozen in the 1920s and '30s, but the Karpis/Barker Gang became one of the era's longest lived, highest profile, and most consequential. During the Depression, their exploits not only burnished the reputation of the FBI and its d ... Show More
43m 32s
Mar 2021
Case Closed with AJ Benza: Tupac and Biggie
Two of the most notorious unsolved cases in the annals of American crime, the murders of Tupac and Biggie, have been the subject of exhaustive investigations that have only led to a tangled web of rampant rumors, conspiracies and Dark secrets. After two decades, the murders in th ... Show More
45m 44s
Mar 2022
Murder Made Me Famous: The “Playmate Killer”
The “Playmate Killer”, Paul Snider, was the ex-husband of Playboy Model Dorothy Stratten. Snider was one of the creators of Chippendales, the male strip club chain, but he is most remembered as the killer of Stratten. Their marriage lasted barely a year. When Stratten developed a ... Show More
44m 8s