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
Oct 13
Cuba’s New Synthetic Drug Wave
How Cuba is Slipping into Drug Chaos Since the beginning of the year, the US has placed Cuba under an oil embargo, crippling its public services and throwing a society that was already on its knees into chaos. Blackouts roll for days, trash piles high and locals are getting sick ... Show More
59m 52s
Oct 6
Cuba: From Lansky’s Casinos to Castro’s Guns
Sean got beaten up in Cuba! To celebrate this, we’ve thrown together a biopoly of crime in the tropics, beginning with the story of how American organized crime flocked to Havana in the 1920s as a Prohibition rum-runner’s paradise. After World War II, mobsters then executed a tak ... Show More
59m 13s
Sep 29
Stash House: Cartel Wars, Coke Boats, and Gangs Gone Global
Danny and Sean take another lap around the criminal world, where somehow everything is getting bigger, stranger, and more international. Sinaloa’s cartel war grinds on, Romanian crews allegedly drain millions from American food-benefit accounts, and South Africa confronts organiz ... Show More
1h 3m
Dec 2024
Murder Inc. | The Secret Muscle of the New York Mafia
In the 1930s and 40s, an unassuming candy shop in Brownsville, Brooklyn, doubled as the headquarters for Murder Inc., the Mafia's secretive enforcement arm. Led by ruthless figures like Louis “Lepke” Buchalter and Albert “Mad Hatter” Anastasia, this group of killers carried out h ... Show More
34m 52s
May 2022
Mafia Pt. 1: The Rise of La Cosa Nostra
When mafiosos rose to power in 20th century America, they were untouchable criminals with an unbreakable code. Their origins in Sicily left them with a taste for extreme loyalty, secrecy, and violence. And even before notorious gangster “Lucky” Luciano remade them into an organiz ... Show More
47m 57s
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
Feb 2018
S1 Ep3: Charles "Lucky" Luciano (Part 1)
In the 1920s, at the height of prohibition, the intelligent, ruthless, and visionary, Charles “Lucky” Luciano forever transformed the Mob from warring street gangs into a highly sophisticated criminal empire. By the time Luciano was finished, the Mob was bigger than General Motor ... Show More
47m 39s
Sep 2022
Fireside With The Underboss - "Framed Us For Murder, Asked Permission To Kill Him"
Sammy introduces us to a couple of new, and super dangerous, mafiosos: Dominick “Mimi” Scialo and Vincent “Jimmy” Rotondo. These wise guys are all tied together in a slew of different crimes including the Dunn brother case.
32m 45s
Sep 2023
194: The History of the Dixie Mafia
By the 1960s, organized crime gangs were well and truly already becoming a presence across the north of the United States, as underworld figures fought for sole control over highly lucrative gambling, illegal alcohol, and prostitution rings. Down south, things were done a slightl ... Show More
22m 34s
Jul 2019
Hollywood: Eddie Mannix & Howard Strickling, Studio Scandal Fixers
In 1930s Hollywood, Howard Strickling and Eddie Mannix were two of the most powerful men in town. From arranging secret adoptions to covering up murder, they were more than just MGM’s managers, they were The Fixers. Sponsors! Veestro - Visit TryVeestro.com/Dark and try the 6 most ... Show More
54m 11s