Fin vs History - W.O.P. | The Mafia (Part 2)
Episode Date: December 11, 2025The Mafia (part 2) | W.O.P. Having been smashed by Mussolini, the Mafia rebuild in Prohibiton America, but not before they’ve given the Statue of Liberty a good goosing Tickets for Fin's 2026 Stan...d-up Tour now onsale fintaylorcomedy.komi.io The show for people who like history but don't care what actually happened. For weekly bonus episodes, ad-free listening and early access to series, become a Truther and sign up to the Patreon patreon.com/fintaylor Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Transcript
Discussion (0)
Canada's Wonderland is bringing the holiday magic this season with Winterfest on select nights now through January 3rd.
Step into a winter wonderland filled with millions of dazzling lights, festive shows, rides, and holiday treats.
Plus, Coca-Cola is back with Canada's kindness community, celebrating acts of kindness nationwide with a chance at 100,000 donation for the winning community and a 2026 holiday caravan stop.
Learn more at canadaswunderland.com.
Welcome back to Finn v. History.
I'm joined by Horatio Gould.
I'm walking here.
I'm podcasting here.
Say a hello to my little friend.
That's what you say.
No.
Say hello to my normal friends.
Say hello to my slightly below average friend.
Say a lot of my slightly below average friend.
Doesn't really work as well.
It doesn't really work.
Say a lot of my friend.
He's tall. He's tall.
My tall friend.
Do you like Mafia films?
You love Mafia films.
Which ones do you like?
Goodfellas.
Goodfellers. Yeah.
Godfather.
There's Mean Street.
What is it called?
Blue Street.
That's not really Mafia.
I haven't seen that.
Oh, Mickey Blue Eyes.
That's great film.
I haven't seen it.
What's that?
What's that?
Mickey Blue.
Hugh Grant in a Mafia film in 90s.
Yeah.
Gangs New York's not really.
That's actually, Gangs of New York is when the Irish people
who establish themselves.
Mickey Blue Eyes, a lot of fun.
Great film.
5.9 on IMDB.
Get fucked.
It looks dreadful.
No, it's good.
Say hello to my little friend.
Don, I'm the Don.
You come to me on the...
Sorry, it's my daughter's wedding.
You've come to me on the day.
Roy Stewart.
It's Hugh Grant.
I think your Hugh Grant is quite Roy Stewart.
Well, no.
Alastair, Alastair,
well, you've actually come to me on the day
of my daughter's wedding.
So the thing about the Mafia's
really, really interesting.
I can't quite, really fascinating
the Mafia.
Words out.
Alster Campbell is really,
he's really kind of like,
he looks like a dad,
his iPad dad,
like his glasses like this.
Yeah,
he's almost like,
he needs a hawking pillow at some point.
I see the clips of the rest of politics
and Campbell's just like this.
Roy Stewart.
Yeah, really, really interesting.
Yeah.
And Campbell's just going up.
Anyway, sorry, we're talking about the mafia.
This is part two.
It's quite sloppy opening from us.
We are in America.
In our last episode, we were in Sicily.
I believe in America.
The shit streak on the porcelain of the toilet of Italy.
Right.
And now the poo has floated across the ocean to the eastern seaport.
And we are in New York.
New York.
So what we learned in the last episode
So Mussolini had smashed
The fascists had smashed the organised
The organised the gangs
We're smashed the fascists
We're the fascists
We're smashed the gangs
And there was a burgeoning
A scene of wops, spicks and day goes
Yeah, burgeoning scene implies a sort of music
It's like Greenwich Village in the 60s
Yeah
For instead it's people fucking chucking
Chucking fat wops off of buildings
chucking a fat wop off a building
Wop is such a great word
It is
Why don't we bring it back
Wap Wap
Bada bing
Bada boom
Yeah because Wop it
I would make a racist bop it
called Wop it
Yeah
Your greasy guinea
Dago
Guinea
Wop it
Well just with all sliders
It's pretty good
Yeah
No not Wap
Not wet house pussy
Yeah
Wet horrible pussy
Wett horrible
We're horrible
Oh that's wet
Some wet horrible
pussy.
Yeah, that's what Watt means now.
That's a British
couple of person.
Some wet,
horrible pussy.
Yeah.
Like,
that's,
well,
that is a closeted
gay geyser from the east end.
Oh,
get that wet,
horrible pussy away from me.
Wet.
Ugh.
Oh.
Disgusting.
Wet.
I love the idea,
I love the idea
that someone
hating pussy
because it's wet.
Oh.
Oh.
Give me a lovely
dry cock.
Dry ass, please.
Oh, horrible.
I want a dry sandy bar.
I'm not some wet
horrible pus.
anyway that's sorry we're not talking about wet horrible pussy we're talking about
sounds like something in the east end calf yeah can I have ash brands baked beans
and I have a wet horrible pussy please think
lovely yeah a bit of brand sauce yeah lovely yeah yeah yeah stick on the side please
oh yeah can we get a couple of watts for the table yeah yeah yeah yeah
side portion of day go um yeah we're talking about the Italian invasion of
America in the 20th century so this is Ellis Island
I think this has been covered by cinema quite a lot, right?
So this is where there was a big call for immigration.
Yeah.
Why was that?
Do you know?
Because the Irish had arrived.
They're gone, we fuck this up.
They're drinking everything.
We need some new people.
And then the Italians are on the boat.
Because this is like the garden age of immigration in a way.
It's the most it's glorified.
Something like in between 1890 and 1910 or 20,
four million Italians arrive in New York.
So it's start the boats.
It's the ultimate start the boats, right?
But as they go past the Statue of Liberty,
Italian men are trying to grope her tits.
Oh, my mama, my mama, oh, they're sexually harassing
the Statue of Liberty as they arrive.
Well, what happens is they see the ass first
and they're trying to grab it.
And when it comes round, they see the face
and they think it's the mama.
So it's the two sides.
Oh, look cheeky, chick, chick, chick.
And then they're slapping each other for going,
how dare you go?
Oh, my God.
Pim, mamma mea.
Pig dog, pig cow.
What could possibly go.
go wrong.
Yeah.
Letting four million.
Four million eye ties into a Protestant city and, well, I mean, New York, New York's
never been the same since.
No.
It's been downhill.
What's that, Charlie?
Just a really striking pig.
That is a striking pig.
It's a dark Christmas.
Pursuto warning.
My God, did that pig's eyes?
That's got the most gorgeous eyes I've ever seen.
Well, there's a sadness there.
Is that a pig who knows what prosciutto is?
Wow.
Fucking hell, that's a pig who...
I didn't know they could look like that.
That's an amazing pig.
God, I would love some salami.
I really do lots of prosciutto.
I saw a video the other day of Italian old people
making prosciutto from scratch.
Amazing.
Incredible.
Just fucking in.
Now, would you agree, as a man who loves food,
would you agree that though Italian cuisine's great,
would you say?
Pretty best in Europe, would you say?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I'd say so.
I do think the Italian sandwich is overrated.
What do you think?
No.
No?
You're not following me there?
Wash your mouth out and kiss your mother with it.
Oh, mama, mama me, please give me a kissy.
Yeah.
No, I think that the bread's too thick and the fillings, it's too thin.
It's like thin ham, wet cheese with a huge amount of bread.
Yeah, but when you open a sandwich up, an Italian sandwich, that is a wet, horrible person.
Yeah, I just think that they, and they're always commenting how Americans don't do it right,
but I think Americans know how to make a sandwich far better than the Italians.
I think they're actually a bit stuck up their own arms.
I do think they need a lot of the deli meats to catch the.
so they're not overwhelmed by the flavour of, like, pickles and stuff.
Yeah.
So you need a whole fucking pack of ham.
I just think that they make the best sandwiches,
and I actually think if you took away from the Italianness of it.
I'll meet Paul Maranara.
That's pretty good.
But is that Italian?
That's probably an American twist.
Well, Americans reinvent, you know, like the hamburger is German,
if you want to be a dick about it.
Oh, we're not going to be a dick about it.
No, we're not.
It's American.
All that stuff.
Yeah, no, I like an Italian.
I know what you mean and that they can quite after you.
I think it's overrated.
And people, people, people,
Well, I think you say, if you start thinking about it,
like, yeah, I guess this isn't that great?
It's just a fuckload of bread
with a tiny, thin bit of hair.
I prefer just sort of just cold cuts on the plate.
Yes, exactly.
Or you have chabata, dip it in oil.
Yeah.
I think it's the wrong way to serve Italian.
Dip it in nonas pum.
Yeah.
Some wet horrible pusspuss.
A bit horrible, non-of-pum.
So, wop it.
Spick it.
Dago, I don't know what they could be.
I just want, racist bop it.
Wop it.
I'm into it.
WOP is a great word
Let's bring it back
Anyway
Make America great again
Make America
Make Wops
acceptable again
Now we start
In New Orleans
The Black Hand
Right
So there's a gang called
The Black Hand
Who come up with this tactic
Called the Black Hand Tactics
Right
Form of extortion
They send threatening letters
Demanding money
With punishments like
Violence Arsenal
Kidnapping for non-payment
So it's sort of like
the license fee
if it wasn't woke.
Yes, they are the black hand.
Yeah, the black hand of Kirsta.
Kirstarler's black hand
is telling me to pay my license fee.
Telling me to even just tell them
that I'm not watching,
fuck off.
Yeah.
Go and catch an actual criminal.
Yeah.
Not to sound like a 50 year old man
from the Cotswold,
but, you know.
Part of me is like,
I think just enforce it more.
I think they're just,
yeah.
I got 15 letters.
And it's like, no one's,
so we're coming around.
You've never come around.
You're not.
You're fucking not, mate.
Come around.
I think you should come around
and actually batter your door in
and get people to pay their license fee
but you can't be this weak hand
like you know we're BBC
we're about this big collective
it's like you've got to have some fucking
they've got some muscle
because this is black hand
Starmer's got like a beadle hand
what is very funny
is all TV license letters
they're all addressed from Romford
yeah so I think they're trying to make it seem
like there's a hard god
yeah like they're based in Romford
fuck off the imagery
yeah no it's some fucking nerd
there's one nerd in a cardigan
who's sending out all these letters
are you watching BBC
are you listening to the radio
and also they turn up
You watch BBC, you go, no, it's blasting on.
Yeah.
What's that?
I don't know.
Can I have a warrant?
Show me a warrant, please.
Oh, fuck.
We've tried to thought of this.
Anyway, the letters, the black hand letters are often decorated with symbols like a smoking gun or a bloody hand.
Decorated?
Yeah.
Oh, that's nice.
Now, in 1880 in Sicily, an English clergyman was kidnapped by a bandit called Leone.
Authorities delay, so they asked for a ransom, I presume.
Yeah, so Leone Lewis.
Not Leone Lewis.
Although, I guess, he does keep bleeding.
Bleeding out my ears.
They keep cut off his ears.
So I guess he does keep bleeding.
He cuts off one ear and the negotiations drag on, so he cuts off the other ear.
And now the British pay, the clergyman who has no ears, gets released.
How does he hear?
It doesn't work that joke.
How does he smell?
No, no, his ears can be cut off.
He can smell fine.
Anyway, the British forced the Italian government to send troops after Leone, who gets killed
along with most of his gang.
But one survivor, Giuseppe Esposito.
Oh, delicious.
Esposito.
Escapes to New Orleans.
Now, New Orleans, he starts extorting Italian shopkeepers and restaurant owners.
So a lot of Mamma Mears.
Oh, a lot of Mama and Papa.
A lot of Mama and Papa Mears.
A lot of Mama and Papa Mea.
Is Papamia a phrase?
Can I be a Papamia?
I don't know.
Papamia.
Oh, Papa Mia.
Mama Mia.
Papa Mia.
Oh, anyway.
That's sort of...
Anyway.
That's my musical version.
Papamia.
Set on a gay cruise.
Well, you don't know which...
Yeah, what would the version of that there?
I've not, I've not seen Mamma Mia.
I'm straight.
I'm straight, so I've got no idea what it is.
I know there's a video of Pierce Bros and singing.
Right.
That's funny, supposedly.
But I won't watch it because I don't want to see James Bond in a musical.
I don't want to see it.
You're worried you might turn gay if you watch it.
James Bondon musical...
If I watch Pierce Bros and singing, I will turn gay.
Yeah.
And then I'll write it.
musical called Papamere
just sat on the gay
crew's
God he was a
fucking smoke show
but young,
young Brosnan
absolute smoke show
even old Broson
to be fair
yeah
he could pull it off
yeah
Craig Daniel Craig's gone a bit weird
yeah
he dresses a bit weird
for a bond fan
you're like Daniel
can you stop ruining
bonds by
dressing in a fucking
V-neck
yeah
he's going like very like
kind of like clown schooly
you know
all comic sort of
I don't like it
I don't like it
he still
it feels like
he was like Bond was holding him back
almost. It feels like for him
he was like, I'm so glad I can finally be myself
now. No, you shouldn't be yourself, but a tucks
back on. Anyway, Giuseppe Esposito
begins extorting Mamma Mia and Papamia
and makes them invest in small boats.
He forms a gang called the Black Hand
and he clashes with another Italian
involved in protection Tony Labruso
who informs on him.
So the police arrest Esposito
he gets deported to Palermo and give him
the life sentence. Brother's David and Mike
Hennessy, because a lot of the racial tensions, the Irish had arrived and they'd gone into politics
and police. So a lot of the more legitimate sides of the American, you know, dream. And then
Germans had arrived and they've gone into business. So it's sort of like Italians who had arrived last,
it was like, what was left? Restaurant. Drop kicking a fat guy off of a building. Yeah.
Wobbling a wop. Wobble wop. The new game. It's like swing ball, but with a fat Italian man.
Lebruzzo, with the informant, he gets assassinated before Esposito's trial.
And then two brothers, Charles and Tony Matranga, take over the black hand.
So they had a monopoly on fruit ship unloading.
That's not the...
That's not when the gay club and soho spill out.
Those fruit ships are being unloaded.
They attack grocery stores and violence breaks out.
Basically, the black hand gets so bad.
The newspaper ads call citizens to a mass meeting.
In March 1891, guns are distributed,
a mob storms the New Orleans jail
and lynch's 11 out of 17 Italians.
So nine men are shot or club to death
inside the prison.
Two victims are hauled outside the prison
hanged from a lamppost and a tree.
One was reportedly hanged four times.
I guess that's how fat he was.
But did it sort of work?
What do you mean work?
I mean, Matthew activity in New Orleans
went down after this.
Well, yeah.
Yeah, so, you know.
They quieted down until 1907.
So 10 years apiece
But yeah
They basically
I didn't realize
The New Orleans
Was such a hotbed
Of Italian lynching
Um
Italians must be the only
Europeans to have been lynched in America
Can you Google that Charlie
Is then Irish?
Do they get any
Were the Irish ever hanging from lamppost
Having been put there by someone else
Not because they just got too drunk
Yeah
The Irish were lynched in America
Were the British lynched in America?
Never
Surely
Seems like, well, yeah
British individuals were lynched in America
in the late 19th and early 20th centuries
Wow
Okay, well it seems like everyone's getting lynched
That's an absolute disgrace though
Linching of Britain America
It's just a public murder isn't it?
Yeah, that's what it is
It's not like a method, it's like a method
Yeah, it's just a public murder mate
It's just a bit of fun
It's just hanging, you know, it's decorated a Christmas tree
And everyone chill out
It's an ancient tradition
That's what I do, I lynch my Christmas tree every year
I don't hang tin until I lynch it.
Anyway.
Anyway.
Come on.
Enough about lynching.
So New Orleans, a hotbed of anti-Italian sentiment because of the black hands had been involved.
At some point, a grocer, Italian-American grocer, his son was kidnapped, an eight-year-old son, held for $6,000 ransom.
Which is a lot, I imagine it at the time.
Yeah.
And then his body was discovered in June 1907, having been beheaded.
Which does strike the question, how annoying was this boy that they went, fuck it.
I don't want $6,000.
I'm going to drop his head off.
Yeah.
But this stirs New Orleans intensely.
But it's interesting, Mafia still has that romance to it.
Yeah.
It's just, I guess it's the, the still like a...
They beheaded an eight-year-old.
Do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do.
Yeah.
It's their weird code of conduct in the culture
that just makes it seem fucking cool.
It's very toxic.
Yeah.
Yeah, it's problematic.
If you're beheading an eight-year-old,
I think at one point you go,
am I hanging out with the wrong friends?
Yeah.
But 13 years after this,
Prohibition begins.
President Calvin Coolidge,
probably the best named Presidents has ever been.
Yeah, that's a good name.
He enacts Prohibition on January...
That's a good comedian's name, Calvin Coolidge.
Yeah.
January 17th, 1920.
Now, obviously, everyone carries on drinking
because it's, you know, the biggest dry January ever.
Of course.
And it's fucking mad policy to get.
But as I've said before,
this is a sort of power struggle
between Protestant America
and the Catholic whops
that had taken over the Eastern Seaboard.
Lock it up, let it all hang out.
A battle is anxious time.
Yeah.
As anxious time.
The whole of history can be famous
Catholic, be Protestant really.
Yeah, yeah, in more ways than one.
So there are obviously loopholes
for religious alcohol, medicine.
Whop holes.
Wap holes, sorry, to give me proper name.
Ordinary citizens carry on drinking,
which empowers rum runners.
Again, it's a lovely name for a slur that.
Yeah, yeah.
I think you were a bit of a rum runner.
Yeah.
No, it does sound, yeah, there's something going on there.
Charlie runs rum across the border.
Yeah, I guess so.
Yeah.
So almost immediately crime surges.
An hour after prohibition begins,
armed men in Chicago steal large quantities of whiskey
destined for medicinal use.
Now, what's medicinal use of whiskey?
Well, I had it rubbed in my gums as a child to stop me crying
by my Presbyterian grandfather.
Yeah.
I guess so.
Shut that kid up.
Yeah.
Yeah, that's a classic thing, but I don't,
surely there's not crates and crates of whiskey just for that.
I guess so.
Yeah. I don't really understand what medicinal use could possibly.
They're probably knocking people out on those, anesthetic in the old place.
Just getting absolutely fucked.
Yeah.
I'd hate to be operated on really, really drunk.
Really, really drunk.
Why more so than...
Well, than now.
Oh, you mean, as opposed to having any sort of like...
Anesthetic.
Anesthetic.
Yes.
Just pissed.
The awful.
Be so horrible.
I want a kebab, not when my leg cut off.
You probably think your leg was a cabab.
Imagine being like that so drunk when you're dizzy.
Yeah.
so there's lots of i mean
one thing that the new the new york mafia
is do much better than sicilians is the nicknames
yes everyone's got a fucking stupid names
big gym big bill
lucky lucky luchano is the big one that's the big guy
he's the big guy but basically prohibition
i think something like four billion dollars
gets put into the black market right 13 years
because it never has a policy been so wildly
out of step right with people yeah i actually don't know much about prohibition
we'll do a whole series on it but yeah but essentially what was the kind of what was the the
night out that led to prohibition like what was the right because it's always like sometimes
like I'm never drinking again but what was that for the whole nation well well a lot of it is
that women can't vote right and the um their their husbands are drinking all the time to get
through uh how horrible their job is right and they come home and they hit them and I think
I've said this before but legally that wasn't domestic violence didn't exist sure so you could
it's like hitting your fridge.
It's like hitting your fridge.
Yeah.
So, you know, a man could hit his wife just the same way he could punch a wall.
Sure.
It doesn't matter.
Yeah.
So...
It's just going down to the net.
Yeah.
Driving range.
Yeah.
Yeah, it's before driving ranges.
So there's domestic driving range where you play 18 holes on your wife.
Anyway.
So the temperance movement is largely Protestant women who are also threatened.
It's the first.
first carous. What are they threatened by? They're threatened by, yeah. The husband is
drug husband, smacking them every night. The drug husband bringing a foreiron into the wedding
room, into their bedroom. It'd be funny to have a domestic abuse caddy. A little guy
in a bib who's like, uh, who's just looking at, looking at his wife sleeping and three wood, three
wood, three wood, three. Anyway, it's the original carons. It's the original white women. White women
are threatened by
South European immigration
people who drink.
So they're an act prohibition in?
Yeah, it's women
stopping the boys from having a good time
for 13 years.
Yeah, it's crazy.
And then it ends as Hitler comes to power.
I don't think that's a coincidence.
Right.
Everyone's like, fuck me, let's have a drink.
What's this guy doing?
Sure.
Anyway, Al Capone
doesn't really, I mean, he is technically,
he's like the big star of prohibition,
but he's known to Scarface
because he gets slashed in,
slashed in the face.
We might do him on a different episode.
Yeah, but he's also, he's not actually that interesting a guy.
Yeah, he's upheld as such a mythic figure.
But he was the only one who actually talked to the press.
He tried to become front and center like the...
It's because they couldn't catch him.
That was the whole thing.
And that's part of the weird thing about the American legal system
is like, yeah, with someone who's so clearly a mafia boss,
but you've got nothing on them.
Yeah.
They could just be your local crime boss.
Well, I think they had stuff on him, but he was paying them all off as well.
Right, right.
So he supposedly orchestrates the Valentine's Day massacre in 1929, but there's actually no evidence.
Do you know what?
We haven't placed any of this.
Right.
People are going to be absolutely livid.
What date?
Shall we place, should we place prohibition coming in?
Because that's kind of the height of the Mafia in America.
Okay.
So that's the 1920s.
Right.
So 1920.
1920, it comes in.
Prohibition.
Right.
So.
Do it with Italian foods.
Italian foods.
Okay.
So that's, that is after Puscian.
Sarneska, after Horish pasta, I believe.
Yeah, and before Carbonara.
Exist as far back as the 19th century.
And it is before, I'm going to say it's before can,
what the Sicilian little cakey things called?
Canolies.
No, ninth and 11th century.
You're absolutely joking.
The 9th century.
I mean, it's not the...
Arabs.
Yeah, but I mean, it's not the most complicated thing, is it?
It's cream and a bit of pastry.
Arabs are doing that.
That's an Arab delicacy.
Christ.
Finn on 9-11.
Arabs doing that.
What?
How was Arabs?
Doing that?
What?
That's an Arab delicacy, is it?
It's a place, what do you say?
It's after the Putin Neskets before Carbonara.
But when's Carbonara?
Carbonara was made by the US GI Joe's.
Oh, was it?
Yeah.
It's before the Americano.
Yeah, look at that.
Oh, you're right.
Really?
And it makes sense, Carbonara, being an American...
Well, it's bacon and eggs, isn't it?
Yeah.
yeah it's just fucking crap oh do you mean pasta that's made of eggs how about you put another egg in
yeah it's just it's just pasta covered in pasta well it's british it's a fry up but it's pasta
yeah carbonara god i'd love murder a carbonara but that so fucking good do you know i think just
think it makes sense that italians invented fascism when you when if you put cream in a carbonara
and see how they react yeah okay right right have you seen the guy they are cuisine fascist
they are they are tablecloth fascists have you seen the guy who trolls italians in italy
by eating it wrong.
Right.
Oh, it's so funny.
Charlie,
get YouTube video of the,
or it's shorts,
whatever, guy who chopped spaghetti with scissors.
Right, right.
He downs the pizza with ketchup.
Right.
And he records all the reactions of the waiters.
It's so fucking good.
So if you're listening,
a guy who's chopping spaghetti with scissors in a restaurant.
They're far away in the kitchen staff are running,
and they're confiscating the scissors,
and they're kicking him out.
They kick him out.
the restaurant and he's asking for his scissors back and the kitchen staff are screaming at him
there's one where he puts ketchup on a pizza and yeah very funny so that they make sense that the
Italians invent fascism given how much they go on about their food so the Valentine's Day
massacre is supposedly Capone eliminates an entire rival gang by they all pretend to be police and
they get in a garage and then they shoot them all but it's not really to do with the mafia mafia which
Which is particularly Sicilians in Italy.
And that's why in The Godfather, they have a strict rules,
and only Sicilians can be part of the gang.
You can only be a made man if you're 100% Italian.
If you're a bit like...
Sicilian, maybe.
I think it might only be Sicilian.
The old country, as they say.
So the Sicilians get access to New York City's docks.
So they manage importation and distribution.
Which is very important during prohibition,
because that's where all the imports of alcohol from Europe come from.
Yeah.
They basically infiltrate trade unions,
and then they can organise strikes as a threat to...
Well, that's where the Teamsters and like...
Because there's all the different forms of the Mafia,
which are all covered by different films.
And then the Irishman,
that's about like the Mafia through the Teamsters,
which is a union, right?
Right.
So there's a lot of like mixed between the Mafia and the unions.
Do you know what a Teamster is?
No.
What's the team?
I think a Teamster is like a Transport Union or else?
It's a lorry driver.
Yeah, so it's the Teamsters Union.
Or it's a driver of a vehicle.
a team of animals.
I was Italian,
right, fine, right.
Yeah.
But yeah, that was a,
had a lot of mafia links.
That's what,
have you seen the Irishman?
No, too long.
Right, fair enough.
And CGI.
Yeah, they did some weird stuff
to De Niro's face,
I mean, it's funny that they spent
like so much money on it,
like 200 million for that technology,
which I feel if they'd waited two years
would have been so much easier.
Just get it for an actor.
Yeah.
I know, and it's funny,
he's playing a 20-year-old,
but he's got the posture
of an age-year-old man.
Yeah.
So there's like him, he's CGIed
and there's
one thing where he chucks his gun off,
and it's so clearly an old bloke.
This is 22-year-old.
But it's also, surely there are like Robert De Niro look-alikes
who have their whole life.
Yeah, but you, yeah, but these are long sections
of a four-hour film.
You can't just have a Robert De Niro look-a-like
and just hope that he can be.
Robert De Niroleurie.
That's good.
That's pretty good.
So they infiltrate the trade unions
and they employers counter
with strike breakers or hired goons
to intimidate workers.
But basically, gangs are essential
to both sides of the union strategy.
Something I'm envious of, I would love
goons.
Yes, I think that's not, like sort of two-dimensional
thugs who don't really have
any sort of character development.
Gooning is a sexual slang term that refers
to the act of masturbation. I don't know. You know what gooning
is, right? What do you mean you know what gooning is?
Of course you do. If I'm masturbating, it's very quickly
into the sink and then I'm back out.
Well, you've got an alter ego when you masturbate now.
So Charlie, because he has to get past Kirstammer's draconian measures,
you have, what's your email called that you use?
Lemon on sticks at gmail.com.
So does it kind of abstain you from the shame?
It just means that there's no way.
Only lemon on sticks is the one masturbate.
Are you doing sort of severance, but with masturbation?
I've not seen, I've seen the Polar Express.
But you know the concept of severance.
no way you're two different people one's at work ones at home and you sever completely
I guess so you could do that with masturbation where you only resever when it so one guy
it's my porn alter ego one guy's whole life is only masturbating that's the only
so you're waking up going well that guy's a fucking poet one guy is just non-stop it's literally
he's never not wanking well part of the issue of this podcast is that I think you've left your
other half who's not a wank not a wanking sex pest at home what gooning is so Charlie though you can't
at home, but Charlie's got three different screens in front of them.
And he's busing.
That's what gooning is, is when you have multiple screens.
Oh, like security guards.
NASA Control Center.
You're porn maxing, right?
Pawn maxing.
Yeah, so it's kind of like, it's for the brain-rotted generation where you can't, one
video, you can't have it, so you just got them all over the place.
God.
Maybe VR headset is around.
Yeah.
Dolby sound system.
Well, like in the Matrix and the thousands of screens.
Oh.
Oh, what?
The, the THX.
Oh.
But it's
Ah
And that's how you know
it's in
Yeah, 3D glasses
Wow
That must have sounded lovely
For the list
No, you just made
I didn't know that
Gooning
Yeah
Christ
No, I don't
I don't think I've ever goons
I don't think I've ever
I don't think I've ever had
more than one porn video
playing at the same time
Oh, it lives son
Different generation
Speaking of you
I've got iPad
iPad phone
Really?
Harry Bo
Lappy
Lapie
He's on his
He's on his eats
Multimedia
He's not as
Eat sweets
He's masturbate
I know
It's disgraceful
Starme
I mean
I've
I mean you know
Back in the day
You'd have like
GQ
Nuts
Zoo
You'd make yourself
A sort of like
Analog Goon spread
Red Jew porn hub
Yeah I guess that's
Yeah
Analog Goon spread
That's my
That's my autobiography
The Anologue
Goon spread
Or do you think it's
In the way
That like
Vinyl became
Hipster
Right
Because it was like
Going back
To a more
Analog age
Yes
So there's
going to be
sort of hipster gooners who are like
they're going to be it's only nudie
mags. Right. Or it's
like really, really old school like
artisanal port like cherubs. Oh right.
Okay, fair trade. Yeah, yeah.
Well, I've always thought that cherubs
I never understood why everyone
was so shocked at the whole Catholic Pido thing
when their house
temples are cased in stone
naked babies. Do you know
what I mean? It's like what? Let's
immortalize this boy as
his best form. Yeah. It's
This is one child who will never grow old.
Yeah, exactly.
These are like, you know, it's the same,
it's the equivalent of having like a hard drive full of it.
Yeah.
It's having a church just full of babies.
And they're like even more tempting because they can fly away.
Let's cover their dicks up.
They can fly away from you.
Oh, you know.
The child you can never touch.
Yeah.
You could even have them cross-legged.
No.
No. Get them out.
Get it out.
I want to see it.
And obviously you're walking and going, Christ.
Fog.
What are all these massive hogs on the roof?
God, I'm surprised they're enough marbles to fill that.
Jesus.
How much my money would it cost
a fucking good?
This guy's such a big fucking slump.
God.
How old is he?
Four?
Bloody hell.
He's got a naturally big dick
for a four-year-old.
That cherub.
Anyway, Christ.
Let's get to Lucky Luchano.
Please.
Lucky Luchano is the guy
who basically turns the mafia
into what it is today.
Because there's so many
fictional characters in mafia films,
Don Collione,
but luckily Luciano is the main guy,
real-life person, right?
He's the kind of star in a way.
So he's born in a way.
Sicily and then he emigrates
age kind of seven or eight
like Don Collione does
in the Godfather films. Yeah, Corleone is a
town in Sicily. Yeah, which Al Pacino
is from. Really? A bit of trivia.
So by the time that
Luciano is a sort of grown man, Prohibition's
underway. So
he meets a guy called Maya Lanski
who is a Jew
from Poland. Don't slack him off.
No, sorry. He's a lovely
guy.
originally named Maya Sushanovsky.
I can't even, I can't begin to say that.
So they move into bootlegging, Lanski and Luciano.
And Prohibition in New York.
But there's a Jewish gang.
So these are tough, tough, hard-nosed Jews and Italian gang.
And they come together.
Unthinkable.
Yeah, so there's a lot of, there's Irish gangs, there's Jewish gangs, there's Italian gangs.
It's the partnership, the John Lennon and McCartney-style partner.
between Lanski and Luciano that is the kind of most successful in the sort of constant fighting
of all these different racial mafias they form the young Turks right which is the group of
they're the first people to put all your ethnicities aside right they're like united colors
of Benetton right for crime we're like we'll have Jews we'll have Italians that's it that's it's
that's it there's more Irish Germans anyway prohibition in in particular in New York was
an absolute farce by 1922 the city had at least 5,000 speech
By 27 had more than 30,000, which was twice as many drinking establishments before prohibition
Had a massive police force, but they were so corrupt by the money from bootlegging and speakeas, because obviously, obviously the police love drinking. Yeah, of course. It's like banning donuts.
The most of the police are Irish. They're Irish. Yeah. It's like if they ban donuts and then the police are obviously going to just keep it open. So there were basically no major prosecutions.
The mayor offered no support for enforcing prohibition until 1929, nine years after it was open. Women are allowed to speak easy. So is that a big change? Because they weren't.
speak difficult more like
speaking
learn to tell a story love
Christ
no I don't know who that is
you know her
we met her once
for lunch
she's one of my other
boring friends
Christ
yeah women run speak difficulties
and cocktails
become popular
because women are allowed in
so that's where
we get cocktails from
to this era
right but it's also
to mask
shitty liquor
yes
shitty liquor and shitty anecdotes by your wife who was suddenly there now so they were like can
we just put gin and whiskey in one glass so that i can fast forward whatever the fuck's coming out of
her face i think that's why booze gets harder right is because women start drinking with right right right
yeah uh anyway gender laws get softer yes now i'm pretty sure you could plot a graph everywhere in the
world as as gender equality increases strength of alcohol also increases man alone at the bar increases
Because Saudi Arabia don't drink.
Right.
And gender equality, bad.
Right.
Interesting.
That cannot be a coincidence.
You heard it here first.
I've cracked another world theory wide open.
That's got to be a thing.
Yeah.
Because where is the most, what, the most equal place in the world?
Scandinavia.
Yeah, they're drinking all sorts of.
Yeah.
Big boosers up there.
Big boosers.
The Finns.
Yeah.
Yeah.
There you go.
So the more gender equality there is, the stronger the alcohol.
whole.
Anyway, bootleggers are becoming romanticised and defying the law kind of becomes fashionable
for middle class people.
I suppose it's a bit like cannabis now.
Yeah.
Cocaine in the 80s, maybe.
Right, right.
So the mafia essentially is like just got so much money at this point because it's...
The black market's never been bigger ever in American history, right?
No.
It's never been more culturally relevant or anything.
And so the, the mafia expands its operations into unions, construction, gambling, prostitution and
narcotics.
Which in the Godfather,
there's that clash
between the old and new world
where Don Collione,
who's come from Sicily,
has a lot of respect for old values,
doesn't want to go into drugs
because it's a dirty business.
That's a huge part of the Mafia, right?
They're kind of newer Goodfellas,
soprano, the New Jersey sort of thing.
This idea of this kind of loss
of traditional values,
a lot of the Mafia
had that weird code of conduct,
but they thought drugs was a dirty business
that they wouldn't get involved with.
But then that's slowly,
but then the next generation,
the people born in America
that those sort of
so you can see
this sort of degradation of the
yeah
because it started with lemons
yeah
and now it's cocaine
cocaine yeah
so Maya Lanski
devises a plan
to unify
New York's warring gangs
right because the main threat
to all the bootlegging
comes from these rival gangs
who are hijacking trucks
and shipments
and then raiding to those territories
and it's not organized
and this breaks out
into the Castoramareze
war
which is a delicious
squared
past the Kalamari, the Kalamari War of
1929. People are throwing squids at each other.
To these are two dominant Sicilian bosses.
Giuseppe Masaria and Salvatore Maranzano.
So he's a tomato.
Yeah, they don't sound scary to you.
They don't sound scary at all.
Manzano tomatoes and then Masseria sounds like sheep cheese.
Sheep's cheese.
Yeah.
So it's mozzarella, but it's mozzarella tomato.
Ding dong!
Want to know the real story of how O.E.
made Britain mad for it, how friends turned us on to coffee culture and super-layered hair.
The secrets of Nirvana, train spotting, gay hookups, Diana's revenge dress,
and what it was really like to be a spice girl?
Plunge back into the decade when the world fell for cool Britannia, bumster jeans and lemon hooch
with Talk 90s to Me.
Listen now, wherever you get your podcasts.
And if you use Spotify, you can watch the whole show too.
That's Talk 90s to Me, out every Monday.
Now, Luciano is one of Messerius boys,
but he gets captured by the tomato card.
Mananzano.
A mananzano.
And he is suspended by his thumbs,
tortured and slashed across the face,
requiring 55 stitches.
Charlie would absolutely love that.
Fuck.
You'd absolutely love that.
I'm very squeamish.
Suscended by your thumbs.
What's that mean?
Like Jesus?
Like Italian Jesus?
No, it's more like,
are you having a nice time?
Yeah.
Yeah, it's like being tickled.
Yeah.
He would want to...
Yeah.
Who wants to be tortured and slashed across the face 55 times?
This guy!
So he gets released only after agreeing to arrange Masseria's murder
in exchange for switching sides and becoming Maranzano's second in command.
Right.
So what he then does is he, so Maseria, that's Joe Maseria who was called Joe the boss, Masseria.
He was the first one to kind of say, I'm like the boss of bosses.
Capoy Capi, boss of the bosses.
He was a fucking sloppy eater, a fat guy who loved food.
okay right he's italian right uh anyway lucky luchano takes him out for dinner at a restaurant
and he's like stuffing his face with because he's got like tomato sauce all over his face
car bloating for a race he'll never run yeah um car bloating for his nap really and luciano go to
the toilet and then four of his goons come inside and gun him down at the table right which is
what that scene in the godfather is yeah yes oh right nice so maranzano he then declares himself
capo di tuti capi um a caper salad right caper onion salad yeah he declares himself a starter
and everyone's like you can't do that the fucking capo de tuti capi oh it's for delicious
no no the capo de tutti capi the fruity liuti the fruity lutei no um but basically the big
problem that luchiano solves is that people always try and be the boss of the boss right
they're always like there's always a bigger boss i want to be mega boss so luchano about four months later
he gets four of their men.
He hires Jewish men.
Because him and Lanski are collaborating.
So they think that,
ironically, they think that hiring four Jewish hitmen
will be less suspicious.
Right.
Because at this point,
the Jews don't run everything.
The Italians run everything.
Yes.
Because at this point,
the Italians are the Jews of Europe.
Interesting.
Anyway.
Then four...
Slight leave there.
Yeah.
Four Jewish hitmen
enter Maranzano's office
posing as tax investment.
investigators and they just shoot him in a cupboard.
Right.
Yeah.
Job done.
Get in the cupboard.
Bang.
And so Luchano, what he does is he breaks with the tradition of then saying, well, I'm
going to be boss of the bosses.
He says, him and Lanski create the five New York families.
Right, which last to this day.
Does it?
Yeah.
There are still five families in New York.
Are they crime families?
Yeah.
Now, what we...
This is part of his, like, we know about them.
Why do we put them in prison?
No, because what we call them, they wouldn't call that themselves.
and it's so decentralized
is that they would just say
we say oh you're part of the Genovese crime family
they say I work for Polly
because all they know is like their little crew
so like in Goodfellas
but I don't know how much power do they have
like I feel the mafia's
the influence in New York's
minimal now probably
I mean I don't know
so you think about who are the crime gangs
even in England
like the modern equivalent is like Albanian gangs
right it feels like it's all shifted
Yeah, it's all sex trafficking.
It's all a bit much for me.
A bit much, yeah.
Game's gone.
It's gone.
It's gone woke.
Come on.
150 years ago, we were importing lemons from Sicily.
There's definitely a lack of class.
Now we're importing 11-year-old teenagers
from Albanyers to have sex with.
It's definitely gone.
The crime is lost a touch of class.
Yeah.
Anyway, what Luciano's great genius is he essentially is like a mafia court management consultant
in that he restructures the mafia into an organization.
that stops all the turf wars.
Okay.
Because he says,
these are the five families,
you have that territory.
It gets an Excel spreadsheet.
Basically.
He's the first spreadsheet
come to get into the mafia.
And they make a board of directors
called a commission
and they will oversee any like disputes.
Yeah,
and they call it all the national crime syndicate.
Do you think at any point it's like,
are we the bad guys sort of thing?
National crime syndicate.
You're all deciding the name.
But also the enforcement arm.
You're telling on yourself, brother.
The enforcement arm is called Murder Incorporates.
Yeah, I feel like.
Murder Inc.
not monsters ink
murder ink
it should be more subtle
they should be
implying it right
big fat Italian criminals
yeah or like
sleeping with the fishes
incorporated
there's a bit of charm
to it
not just fucking murder ink
so they allocated
territories in New York
they approved or vetoed
murders of other
underworld figures
so they sort of
settle gang disputes
and they oversee
the racketeering
and the construction
corruption
and they sort of
coordinate nationally
with people in Chicago
Al Capone's team
whatever
and this is also why
Italian
apart from Cuoma
and the Cuombo,
but it's very hard for Italians
to get anywhere in politics.
Still?
I feel like,
what would think of
big Italian politicians.
Well, in America?
Yeah,
there's not really been
big names
who have made up high up
in the section.
It's true, actually.
They're all kind of washed.
Who's the one
who does the rest of politics,
US?
Oh, Scaramucci.
Scaramucci.
And even just the name.
It's like...
I think he's a crook.
I think the brand,
the brand of Italians
is permanently smeared by them after.
You're right,
actually.
Where you don't want them anywhere
near politics
because you just assume
that they're praying
their cousins.
They're called Scada Bush
Bada Bing.
You can't have a president
called Tony Bada Bing
Ragatoni.
You can't have a president Bada Bing.
No.
So Murder Inc is a criminal organization
roughly between 29 and 41
and it's largely composed
of Jewish American and Italian-American gangsters.
They carry out contract killings.
People estimate maybe a thousand
over those 11 years.
On behalf of the syndicates,
different bosses of the five families.
So they're like a corporate murder
for hire business and the variety in terms of the methods they use to kill people uh ice pick
stabbings so they're doing a corporate gig yeah and then the corporate can pay a lot what you're doing
i'm fucking chopping chopping a guy's head off putting in a freezer yeah right right okay
least the money's good money's good i guess tough gig they often used common everyday items to
avoid carrying weapons right so ice picks uh strangulation garotte what is a garot what do you go how do you
grot.
Right, right, right.
Wire around the neck.
Yes, nice.
It's probably a sex thing.
It's probably like gooning.
Can you self-grot?
Auto-garot?
Autogorotic exfixiation.
I guess so.
Yeah.
Meat cleavers.
Yep.
Live burial.
Live.
Live.
And it's live.
Live.
Fuck it.
We'll do it live.
Cement shoes is my favourite.
That's a good one.
Yeah.
Tying bodies to weights and just plopping them into the water.
Are you alive when they do that?
They're probably knocked out.
All right, right.
So Lucky Luchano sorts out the mafia.
He stops the sort of disputes for a long time.
And there's a guy called Arnold Rothstein, who is as Jewish as he sounds.
Right.
And is Jewish by nature as well.
He's the money guy.
Okay.
Who apparently doesn't drink at all.
His only vice is cake, loves cake.
Okay.
And he's the one that gets the mafia into casinos eventually.
Yes.
And so they all kind of learn business from him.
Right.
So Luchano moves the Mafia into narcotics.
He also is a bit, he loves, he loves pimping.
Right.
Pimping ain't easy.
Now, what do you think pimping is?
What do you say pimping is?
It's selling, well.
A horrible pussy.
It's selling wet horrible pussy.
Well, I had a guy who, I think a strange comedian, who I want to actually name,
but he was telling me about his pimping.
And he said pimping, how he described it, he's from Atlanta.
He said pimping.
for him was getting women to buy him stuff, right?
That's what they describe as Pimpin.
So you basically, you flirt with the girls so much
they're so desperate for your dick
that they will get you gifts.
That's quite a big guy.
I've never had that.
I mean, he was a biological liar.
You flirt with them so much
that they're desperate for your dick.
Yeah, Pimpin.
And they buy you stuff.
So he calls those a Pimp, but what that means
is women buy him stuff.
I think it's not even calling himself,
I think it's called Pimpin.
But the reality is so grim.
You're doing a bad thing, but the big fur coat, the little pimp cane and the little...
Well, again, that's a stereotype.
I think there's a lot of people just wearing capatraxes.
No, I don't think so.
Jeans.
No, I think most of them are big fur coats.
And they have this sort of like, this like limp that they affect to just give them a bit more swagger.
Swag.
Yeah.
Anyway, Luchano loves pimping and he gets imprisoned in 1936 for 50 years because they're trying to send the message because they can't get him and all the other stuff.
He's basically, he's staying like the Waldorf Astoria.
He's got big fur coats.
He is sort of like dressed him.
It's like a pimp.
They think that maybe he might have been the richest man of the time,
but because it was all undeclared and all cash in the weather.
You couldn't spend it easily.
But it's like he was making millions a month.
So he's probably a billionaire by the 30 standards.
Right.
So it's like Bonnie Blue.
Yes.
Yeah.
But again, she can't go out at night because she's scared about people shoving acid in her face.
So it's like, do you know what I mean?
You know.
Is she?
Gone.
Yeah, you're not watched a documentary.
No.
No.
She's scared about people aciding her.
Yeah.
Really.
Heartbroken.
What's sweet.
And she passed the pick with Bivo.
Do you see that?
They've been shagging.
Have they?
Yeah.
Yeah, they have done.
Yeah.
But it makes sense.
It's kind of like power couple.
Yeah.
Christ,
that's depressing, isn't it?
The Clintons of our age,
Bevo and Bonnie Blue.
Fuck me.
That's all just fucking set it on fire and start again.
Bevo and Bonnie Brew.
We ask the D-E show, Meet the Beavos.
Does he?
He's got his mum on fucking Paul now.
Oh, my God.
Have you seen this?
Yeah, I have we not talked about this.
It's crazy.
We must have talked about this.
She looks 12.
there is something about it
there is something about it
no there's not right
come on
now lichano gets sent away
for a long time
he goes to Sing Sing
which is a notorious prison
500 miles north of New York
and he there
engineers the most significant
coup of his career
where because the US
entered the Second World War
suddenly America
is explicitly at war with Italy
right of course
so Italian immigrants
are a security risk
and I think there's a
there's a ship
that maybe
set on fire
at the New York
Docks or something
up the Hudson
and suddenly
everyone's like
oh this is sabotage
this is Nazis
and so
the US government
they go to Luchano
and they like
can you
you basically
control the docks
because they're all Italians
right
can you tell them to
chill out
and let us
and give us some
spy on the
Italians and the Nazis
whatever
the Axis
so he agrees
sabotage then
stops
and Luchano
offers further
assistance. He sends messages back to the old country,
ask them to help the Americans by providing intelligence on
landing sites. But what's interesting is obviously Mussolini
was very anti-mafia. So it's like within Italy
it's not necessarily, even though they're both
fucking bad guys, they're both chucking people off buildings
but in different styles. Well, come on.
Sorry. No, come on. Mussolini founded fascism. Right, right, right.
On the Mount Fashmore, he's there. He is there. With the
He is there.
Who's on Mount Fashmore?
Who's on Mount Fashmore?
Mount Fashmore.
Yeah.
Well, my Mount Fashmore.
Yeah.
Mussolini, Hitler, Mugabe.
Yeah.
And, um...
Is it another...
Pinichet.
Pinichet, right.
Yeah.
That's nice.
If you're a poet, I'm going to electrocute your balls.
Okay.
Yeah.
That's nice.
Um, now, five months before the Allies invade Sicily,
Luciano appeals for release on grounds of services rendered.
So he does eventually...
Or invoices.
You basically invoices
and the expenses
are you need to release me
but I think he had a massive
like ding dong with one of the legislators
A bad a ding dong sorry
A bad a bing bad a dong
With
A prosecutor called Thomas E. Dewey
And I think he was like
The guy that banged him up eventually
You know there's stories where like
A Mafia guy is always one step ahead
Of the prosecutor
And then like catch me if you can
Yeah sure
Eventually Dewee catches Luciano
bangs him up for 50 years
But then after how many years, Luciano
helps the US government
prepare for an invasion of Sicily
and then when he gets released
it's the same prosecutor who is now Mayor of New York
that has to let him out.
It's particularly bittersweet
because he spent all that time.
Is this partly why he's called Lucky Luciano?
No one knows why he's called that,
but he just seemed to be quite lucky.
No one knows.
Well, the research I did, no one knew.
That's interesting.
Oh yeah, he survived a brutal 1929 gangland assassination attempt
where I spoke was slip.
Right.
Other possible reasons include
a reputation of being lucky at gambling.
In 1943,
the Operation Husky,
this is when the American forces
landed in Sicily,
obviously,
for the Italian invasion.
This is the first ever
Allied invasion of an Axis
thing in the war.
Of course, right.
So four years into the war.
And especially from the British perspective,
it was much bloodier
than is often documented.
Well, this is the interesting thing.
So basically,
the mafia and the US government
are talking all the time.
and the theory goes
that because the US invaded
took the western side of the island
very easily
and then the Brits took the east
and had a really tough time
We had a real tough go at it
It was a sticky wicket for the Brits
And everyone basically thinks
that's because the Americans
had a dialogue with the Sicilian mafia
Yeah because a lot of American soldiers
were Sicilian
And apparently on their trucks and stuff
They'd have an L flag
Yeah
And they were going home
They were like great
we'll take over Cicely and then we can go and kiss our non-or on the mouth.
We can honk on nona's horrible, wet,
horrible pussy.
Nona's wet horrible pussy.
Anyway, ten days.
Anyway.
Anyway, after honking on their non-as wet horrible pussy,
just like a non-a used to make.
It's so funny the amount of people who are coming to say,
like, this podcast has really got me through such a tough.
time you know this is such an important yeah it's just yeah honged on the other's wet horrible pussy man
i needed this god i'm so glad i found this podcast yeah people commenting are i'm going through
really i'm going through a breakup at the moment and this series really really christ anyway
the soldiers they this is where they invent the americano because they add some water to espresso
is it actually americano carbonara yeah yeah because before this it was just espresso right
interesting
and then the Americans
didn't have enough to go around
so they would add hot water
and they'd make a
when I hear about that
I always think I would have thought
about it earlier
I always think that
yeah
like it obviously
oh there's not enough
what do we do
yeah but now there is enough
now there's loads
there's too much coffee
too much coffee
too much coffee
go on age
no it talks to me to have
a morning coffee
it's at the beginning
of that really
it's the beginning of coffee memes
yeah anyway
10 days after the landing
the Sicilians have
gone and honked
they're none as behind
Don Calo Vichini is made an honorary U.S. Army colonel known to the troops as General Mafia.
Right.
So the Mafia, having been violently suppressed by Mussolini, now present itself to the Americans as anti-fascist.
Kind of awesome.
Because to be fair, the mafia, they never, they only get involved in politics when it's expedient to their ends.
Sure, yeah.
So if it means they're anti-socialists, anti-fascar, whatever they need.
So at Don
General Mafia's request
Several imprisoned Mafiae are released
And they get placed in municipal positions
Under the Allied administration
So basically the Mafia's reinstated after World War II
Because the Americans are clearing these villages
In Operation Husky
And then they basically are right someone you look after it
And then the guys are like yeah I can do that
Yeah brilliant
And then everyone's like oh fuck it's that guy again
So they basically reinstate the Mafia on the island
So yeah with Mafia assistance
The US took Central and Western Sicily
in seven days with minimal casualties,
Montgomery's British forces
up the East Coast took five weeks
and suffered heavy losses.
Yeah.
So we didn't make friends
with the mafia.
No.
When the Allies moved to mainland Italy,
Vito Genovese emerged as another
delicious, cut of veal,
breadcrumbs,
tomato sauce.
He emerged as another mafia liaison.
He had fled to Italy in 37
to avoid murder charges,
became close to Mussolini.
He allegedly provides cocaine
to Mussolini's son.
What an honor.
And he repositioned himself
as the Allies advanced.
Oh, it'd be great to do cocaine with Mussolini's son.
Because Mussolini is one thing,
but to have, imagine the brat that Mussolini was raising.
Fuck me.
On Coke.
Yeah.
That's like sort of Saudi rich kid.
That's Coke, Coke, Coke, Coke, Coke.
Yeah.
Is that him, Bruno?
Yeah, Mussolini's already Coke.
Mussolini is Coke.
Yeah.
This guy can't be.
Fuck me.
Him and the boys.
Is that him?
Look, I've got to get that, get up.
Look at that.
God, he looks good.
Yeah, that's powerful.
It's the original black roll neck.
It's dapper laughs.
Well, I don't think he's apologised for being cancelled.
No, he's not.
Trusting up as Mussolini.
I can't wait to do a series of Mussolini.
He's so fucking good.
Yeah.
60% of all the Allied food supplies unloaded in Naples
gets diverted to Genovese's corrupt soldiers,
the Camorra members.
The network around all this,
Luchano inherits when he gets deported back to Italy in 1948.
So he gets deported after his release from jail,
and he re-establishes the old mafia networks.
And so I think he maybe starts all the heroin stuff
with the Corsicans and the French,
the French connection heroin.
But we'll probably have to leave that for another time.
There's a lot of...
But we should probably talk about what the mafia is like now.
I mean, the mafia in southern Italy.
Yeah.
The mafia is still a huge part of what goes on there.
Oh, we won't be able to go there now.
Yeah.
We've done this.
Yeah, of course.
And the amount of times we've said Porcadillo
we'll be blacklisted.
I mean, my mum was in Sicily recently
and there's this beautiful old theatre
that can't program any anything,
any music acts, anything.
Because if they do, the amount of people have to pay off,
they would lose all the money immediately.
Really?
Because just to put something on,
the amount of hands they have to do,
it means that it literally, you can't do anything.
And there's so many things like that
where it's just that you have to pay off so many people
it's becomes...
There's like bridges that are half finished there, obviously.
Really?
So many people are skimming off the top.
that the money that they're given for the bridge,
it's just half a bridge.
All they're just asleep.
Yeah.
Bit your boys.
That's Italian.
They've got to be paid to.
Who's this?
He's the most recent boss of bosses.
Really?
Mateo Messina De Naro.
He died in 2023.
RIP.
Basically, by the time of all two ends,
the mafia, having been smashed under Mussolini,
is fully operational again,
controls pretty much all the ports in Sicily,
infiltrated politics.
So in short,
World War II just rebuilt it
I mean in Gaddafi would say
real mafia in American government
Yeah, of course
Number one mafia
Ronald Reagan
Number one terrorist
Mafia of America
But basically it's whenever there's a power vacuum
The Mafia fill in
Yeah
So that's the end of the story
I think we'll have to do a series
On like the post-war mafia
Because that's all fucking crazy
And there's car bombs
And it's Maradonna in Naples
Maradonna in Naples
Maradonna in Naples
We've got to do a series
Of Maradona
Of course.
Anyway, thank you very much
for listening
if you'd like more
then on our Patreon
we will be doing
a film club
about Mafia Films
I watched Goodfellers
last night
you watched The Godfather
we'll be talking about
they are based on real stuff
as well
which is great.
Straight guy films
Yeah
so bonus episodes
for the blokes
Bonar episodes for the blokes
Bonar episodes for the blokes
that's on the Patreon
if not we'll see you next week
for a brand new topic
Arrivedo deuce
Bye.
