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
Nov 11
The Tijuana Cartel's Bloody Rise and Fall
When the godfather Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo got busted in '89, he divvied up his empire from a prison cell and handed the coveted Tijuana plaza to the Arellano Felix Brothers, who transformed it into one of the most violent drug organizations in Mexico. At their peak, the brot ... Show More
1h 1m
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
<div>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 ... 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