01x07 - New Frontiers

[bunniefuu]

narrator: Previously... on "The Making of the Mob: New York"...

For nearly a decade, Charles "Lucky" Luciano has run his criminal empire from a maximum-security prison.

But the outbreak of World w*r II...

President Roosevelt: A date which will live in infamy. has given him the opportunity to get out.

You'll never guess who I got a call from.

Who?

The FBI.

narrator: From behind bars, Luciano strikes deals with the FBI and the U.S. Navy...

Well, listen, sir, just because we're businessmen, doesn't mean we're not patriots.

We'll lock down the docks.

Using the Mafia's control of the waterfront to gain leverage with the government.

Come on, let's go, we can move faster.

narrator: But Luciano's former acting boss, Vito Genovese, becomes a major problem...

(door banging)

Freeze! Freeze! Don't move, don't move, don't move!

When he's arrested in Italy and sent back to New York on a m*rder rap.

He's gonna testify. How could you be so stupid?

narrator: With a witness lined up to testify, Luciano orders a hit...

Time for your daily dose.

(coughing) that saves Genovese, but does nothing to earn Luciano his freedom.

Luciano: When will we know?

That's up to Dewey.

narrator: Finally, Thomas Dewey lets Luciano out of prison, but at a steep price.

They're deporting you... to Italy.

Luciano: You came all this way to see me go.

narrator: Now, Luciano will have to figure out how to keep control of the American Mafia...

Come visit me sometime, huh?

From 4,000 miles away.

♪♪

man: ♪ This ain't no time ♪
♪ To feel sorry for myself ♪
♪ I can't help it ♪
♪ 'Cause there's nobody else ♪
♪ And I walk these streets ♪
♪ With your name on my tongue ♪
♪ But I dare not speak ♪
♪ Only there it belongs ♪
♪ There's got to be a better way ♪
♪ Better way ♪♪

(church bell tolling)

♪♪

(door squeaking)

narrator: After 10 years in prison, Lucky Luciano is finally a free man.

But he's been exiled to Italy and told he can never return to America.

In the 40 years since Luciano arrived in the United States, the no-name Sicilian immigrant has become a legend.

Creating a criminal empire alongside the friends he's had for decades.

Joe Mantegna: Lucky Luciano is a Sicilian immigrant and actually fits that perfect mold of a guy who comes to this country.

It's almost like achieving the American dream, but... the dark side as opposed to the light side.

narrator: Now, Luciano's been forced to leave the future of the American Mafia in the hands of his crew.

(seagull calling)

Nothing's changed, gentlemen.

Lucky's still calling the sh*ts.

You're being modest, Frank.

Of course, he is.

He's a modest guy.

narrator: With Luciano 4,000 miles away, Frank Costello is the acting boss of Luciano's family and must keep the peace between the five New York crime families run by gangsters like Joe Bonanno and Joe Profaci.

You have our confidence.

narrator: The man Costello replaced, Vito Genovese, has been released from prison only to find himself demoted within the organization.

What's on your mind, Vito?

How do we make things right between me and Charlie?

I think you're talking to the wrong guy.

He's got me running the street g*ng like some punk.

That's not right.

It's out of my hands.

I thought you was in charge here?

Do you want me to go over Charlie's head?

He's making me look like a fool.

Selwyn Raab: Vito Genovese was very envious.

He felt that he had been short-changed, weren't getting all the benefits and all the wealth.

And it was no question that he was an archrival of Costello.

narrator: While Costello deals with Genovese, Meyer Lansky is overseeing an aggressive plan to expand the Luciano empire outside the United States.

It's nice being close to the sea.

We have the same thing in New York, but it's nothing like this.

You have Coney Island.

We have Coney Island. (chuckling)

narrator: Meyer Lansky has spent years paying off powerful Cuban politician Fulgencio Batista.

Toast.

To a beautiful future in a beautiful place.

Meyer Lansky II: My grandfather loved Cuba.

He loved the Cuban people. He loved the weather.

Hopefully we'll be spending a lot of time down here.

Lansky II: Batista knew that my grandfather was known for being honest.

He brought him over and he started cleaning up the games.

man: There we go. Big winner.

narrator: With Batista on the payroll, Lansky moves forward transforming Havana's seedy hotels into five-star casinos... that had the potential to make millions of dollars a day.

Rich Cohen: Meyer Lansky wanted to be a legitimate businessman.

And he just knew how to run a casino.

I mean, the numbers, the odds, how the house always wins.

What games they should play, how to take care of people.

And his idea was really to do that ultimately in Cuba.

narrator: While Lansky's laying the foundation in Cuba, Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel has set up a stronghold for the family in California.

Take good care of her, that's what you could do for me, right?

Thank you, here we go.

Hey, how we doing over here, huh?

narrator: Luciano's trusted hit man has been in Los Angeles since the late '30s.

He's infiltrated the movie industry, using mob-run unions to gain leverage with the studios.

But after his years of loyalty, Siegel still has nothing to call his own.

Lucky Luciano, Vito Genovese, Frank Costello, Meyer Lansky.

Each of Siegel's childhood crew has either been the boss or has had the freedom to run his own operation.

Siegel wants to be remembered as more than just a trigger man.

He wants a lasting legacy.

Siegel sees his opportunity 300 miles east in a stretch of barren Nevada desert known as Las Vegas.

Oscar Goodman: Las Vegas was a patch of sand.

There weren't any buildings taller than two stories high.

It didn't have any kind of a reputation.

It was hard to get to.

narrator: It may be a barren desert now, but Siegel sees what no one else can, a gambling mecca.

Nevada is one of the few states in the country that has legalized gambling.

Siegel: I've been having this vision, right?

And I look off into the dark desert and see these lights.

They're so bright that they'll blind you, right?

And I see people and hotels and casinos and money.

Lots of money.

narrator: Siegel's vision is a European-style mega hotel and casino that will attract the Hollywood crowd and the high rollers.

And also bring in tourists willing to cough up thousands of dollars a night.

Siegel names his hotel after his nickname for his long-legged girlfriend, Virginia Hill, the Flamingo.

Goodman: Bugsy Siegel saw that the future of entertainment and gambling and all that Las Vegas stands for, as far as being an exciting tourist destination, would be possible here in this desert.

narrator: But in order to make his dream a reality, Siegel needs one thing... money.

Siegel: It's a little town called Las Vegas.

Luciano: How much, Benny?

A million dollars. A million dollars?

You want us to pump a million dollars into the desert when we already got casinos making money?

Yeah, 'cause there's one major difference.

Gambling in Vegas is legal.

-100%.

Legal, huh?

I'm telling you, you got people from L.A. coming over.

You got people from up North.

Get the bigwig movie stars out there, get some appearances going, some press.

I'm talking fancy casino.

You know, nice restaurants, good hotel rooms.

It's a good investment, right?

You put that money in, we get this thing going, we'll triple that profit in a week.

And, listen, I've stood by you a long time.

I think this is a good idea.

Well, you better be right, Benny.

narrator: Luciano pledges to help fund his friend's Las Vegas dream.

But he knows he'll need an even bigger venture if he's going to maintain his place in the Mafia.

In the case of organized crime figures, you have to be successful.

You have to make money. You have to be imaginative.

And if you're not making money, you're gonna lose stature in the family.

narrator: During the w*r, Vito Genovese made millions exporting Italy's legally manufactured heroin to the United States.

Now, Luciano seizes what's left of Genovese's smuggling operation... and makes it his own.

Sal Polisi: The drug business was huge.

The amount of money that you could make in one day with dr*gs, it would take you years to make gambling.

narrator: With heroin now illegal in Italy, Luciano invests hundreds of thousands of dollars converting Sicilian candy factories into underground heroin labs.

(speaking Italian)

(responding in Italian)

narrator: Luciano knows with his vast criminal network in the United States, he already has a market of millions of customers.

All he needs now is a way to smuggle the dr*gs into America undetected.

♪♪

Hey, wake up, your portrait's in "The New York Times". (chuckling)

Uh... thank you.

Charlie. Oh.

So good to see you.

Even if it is a pain in the ass to get here.

It's good to see you, too.

(exhaling) But don't unpack yet.

And wire your wife.

Let her know we'll be gone for a few more weeks.

What? What's going on?

I want to go to Cuba.

See this operation you've built for us.

narrator: Luciano realizes that Cuba is the missing piece to what could be a billion dollar drug operation in America.

Now all he needs to do is sell the idea to the rest of the Mafia.

(seagull calling)

narrator: After seven months in exile, Lucky Luciano leaves Italy in secret... and heads to a country that's become a safe haven for the mob... and is only 90 miles away from America...

Cuba.

Meyer Lansky's association with the Cuban government allows mobsters to operate without interference, making it the perfect place for Luciano to make his comeback.

Luciano calls for a gathering that will bring the Five Families to the island country to reaffirm his status and announce a plan to expand the Mafia's power.

It will become known as the Havana Summit.

(ship horn blows)

(jazz band playing)

Luciano: You ladies enjoying yourselves?

narrator: For his long-awaited return, Luciano decides to go big and brings a well-known performer in from New York City named Frank Sinatra.

♪♪

Michael Green: Why shouldn't a group of wealthy entrepreneurs who are gathered for an event hire an entertainer?

It happens all the time.

In this case, it happened to be a bunch of gangsters bringing in the guy we came to know as the "Chairman of the Board".

Sinatra did indeed have friends in the Mafia.

But if you're a singer, who are you dealing with?

I mean, who owns the nightclubs?

Mafia leaders.

Richard Hammer: They had this big party. You look very nice.

Everybody came and they brought money and they brought gifts to Luciano.

(indistinct chatter)

Everybody was happy, and they thought that Luciano would be on the next boat back to the United States.

narrator: With America's top gangsters assembled, Luciano gets down to business.

Luciano: I called this meeting to personally tell you about our intentions for the future.

narrator: His first proposal is to get the families to invest in Bugsy Siegel's Las Vegas casino in an attempt to do what Lansky has done for Cuba on American soil.

Part two of Luciano's plan is an even more ambitious and lucrative proposal.

Luciano: We're gonna be bringing a lot more heroin into the country.

From Italy to Cuba to Florida... and then from New York to Los Angeles.

You guys are gonna have to get your transportation, your storage and your distribution in order.

Because if we do this thing right, we'll make 10 times more than we did last year and then 10 times more the year after that.

And everybody will get their cut.

How about the guy who set the whole thing up?

What do you mean, Vito?

You know what I'm talking about.

No, I don't.

Where's my cut?

Why don't we talk about that after?

narrator: While the assembled families agree to Luciano's proposals, Genovese feels he's being cut out of the heroin racket he set up in Italy.

♪♪

Luciano's factories in Italy begin producing tens of thousands of pounds of heroin, which is then smuggled across the Atlantic through the Caribbean and into the United States.

Luciano was key in setting up, uh, the importation of heroin.

He had set up the first pipeline for the heroin to come into the United States.

narrator: From his headquarters in Havana, Lucky Luciano is now in control of a global narcotics empire.

But there's still even more money to be made.

2,000 miles from Cuba in the middle of the Nevada desert, Bugsy Siegel had just broken ground on a luxury hotel and casino.

When you talk about visionaries of Las Vegas, you gotta put at the very top a fella like Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel.

narrator: The Five Families have invested millions of dollars in Siegel's vision to turn Las Vegas into the gambling capital of the country.

Bugsy, we gotta talk numbers.

So in order to be ready for opening, we need 300,000 for building material, 500,000 for plumbing and 700,000 for labor?

Yeah. How is this possible?

narrator: But the massive project is already encountering problems.

Green: Siegel wasn't necessarily the best businessman.

The Flamingo's costs were spectacularly overrun.

That's a million and a half more I need to come up with.

We're in the desert. I got trucks coming, I got...

Listen, hey, keep the guys working.

I'll get the money.

Just build the damn hotel.

narrator: Siegel's operation has gone wildly over budget, forcing him to borrow more money from the Five Families.

Now more than ever, he needs the Flamingo to succeed.

♪♪

narrator: Lucky Luciano is running his criminal empire from Cuba.

And he's using the island nation to smuggle heroin into the United States.

My pleasure, my pleasure, enjoy yourselves.

(chatter)

There was so much money in the drug trade that every family sooner or later got into it.

No one could stay away from it.

narrator: While the mob is making a fortune on Luciano's drug ring...

Vito Genovese believes he's the one who deserves the respect and a larger cut of the profit.

Hammer: Luciano, he just did not like Genovese.

He hated him.

Genovese was a powerful man, uh, but, uh, they didn't get along.

They never got along.

(softly) I like your...

Did you forget about our meeting, Charlie?

No, I didn't forget about our meeting.

You're holding me down, Charlie.

And I want to know why.

You want to know the truth?

Yeah.

'Cause you're stupid.

I done all right for myself.

Yeah.

Because me and Meyer and Frank have looked out for you all your life, that's why.

I earned my place in this thing.

And I deserve some respect.

You deserve what I tell you you deserve.

And you've earned nothing.

Well, since we're telling the truth... how's it feel to know you're never going back to New York?

Must hurt.

It's gonna hurt even more when the feds catch up with you.

How would the feds know where I am, Vito?

Who's to say they don't already know?

Huh? What have you got?

(grunting)

Come on.

(grunting continues)

(coughing)

narrator: For decades, Luciano and Genovese have been loyal business partners.

But Luciano realizes that from now on, Genovese can't be trusted.

Meanwhile, 2,000 miles away in a Nevada desert, Bugsy Siegel's luxury hotel and casino is finally complete.

To build the Flamingo, Siegel's borrowed the modern-day equivalent of $60 million from the mob.

Cohen: Bugsy saw his chance in Las Vegas because he'd invested everything in this sort of dream of building a legitimate gambling empire just like Steve Wynn or anybody else.

narrator: Bugsy Siegel knows the Flamingo has to be a huge success.

But on opening night, a huge storm hits Las Vegas.

And with many of the hotel rooms unfinished, Bugsy Siegel's big opening is a bust.

Bugsy Siegel, he had this great vision of having this luxury resort in the middle of the desert that would attract people, that would become something big.

But the night the Flamingo opened, December 26th, 1946, the hotel wasn't ready.

And the costs were spectacularly overrun.

Virginia, get me a drink.

Sure.

Chin up, huh? We'll be all right.

It's this weather slowing everyone down.

Yeah. It'll be all right, baby.

Here's to you, doll.

narrator: In the first week it's open, the Flamingo loses the modern-day equivalent of $3.6 million and Siegel is forced to shut down.

His Las Vegas dream has turned into a nightmare.

♪♪

narrator: In 1947, just two weeks after its opening night, Bugsy Siegel's Las Vegas hotel has been forced to close.

And his boss and business partner, Lucky Luciano, wants answers.

Luciano: Meyer, this isn't good.

There's a lot of money unaccounted for.

I really think this thing can make money.

He just needs a little more time.

Meyer, I love you like a brother.

And I love Ben like a brother.

But time is running out on him.

You know it, he knows it.

narrator: Meyer Lansky manages to buy more time for Bugsy Siegel to make the Flamingo a success.

And Siegel knows that this time, he has to pull it off.

He finally completes the construction of the guest rooms.

He pays publicists to hype the event... (excited chatter) and calls in favors from all of his celebrity friends.

(excited chatter continues)

Cohen: Bugsy was kind of like the Italian gangster of Jewish gangsters.

He was flash, he was out in public, he was dating starlets.

And sort of like his full-time gig was being Bugsy Siegel.

♪♪

(chatter)

narrator: On a clear Las Vegas night, three months after closing its doors, The Flamingo was ready for its second grand opening.

And gamblers from all over the country show up to spend their money.

(indistinct chatter)

Bugsy Siegel's Flamingo Hotel was really the first of its kind.

It had its great restaurants, it had its terrific bars, swimming pools, gorgeous women.

I mean, it was a precursor of what Las Vegas is today.

Welcome to the Flamingo. Enjoy yourself.

How are you tonight? Good, how are you?

You look beautiful.

Oh, thank you.

(slot machine clinking)

narrator: After more than a year of delays and budget overages...

Bugsy Siegel's big gamble on a forgotten desert town finally pays off.

While Bugsy Siegel is riding high, Vito Genovese is convinced it's time he gets a bigger cut of the profits for laying the groundwork for Luciano's Italian heroin racket.

I just can't get it out of my head.

Try. I'm trying.

Well, then try harder.

They had nothing before me... nothing!

Now what are they clearing?

A couple million dollars.

Every week. Each and every week.

That's my money.

You should take it back.

Baby, it's not that complicated.

narrator: As Vito Genovese looks for a way to be the boss once again, the U.S. government eliminates one of his greatest obstacles.

The Federal Bureau of Narcotics has had Lucky Luciano under surveillance in Cuba.

And soon learns of his drug ring importing heroin into the United States on a massive scale.

The United States decided that they didn't want Luciano here.

And they put pressure on the Cuban government... and made the Cuban government send him back to Italy, which was the last thing he wanted to do at that point.

narrator: In March of 1947, Luciano is forced to board a ship bound for Italy.

♪♪

Destroying his dreams of returning to America.

narrator: After being deported to Italy again, Lucky Luciano's control of his empire has continued to crumble.

And he's made a dangerous new enemy out of Vito Genovese.

While Bugsy Siegel's casino is finally turning a profit, none of the mob bosses who invested are getting their cut.

Well, how fast do we get to making that up? I don't know.

This is an investment, there's a certain way it should be run.

It should be here. $6 million.

He's gotten very soft, Bugsy.

Listen, I trust Bugsy, I grew up with him.

Yeah, but he has a soft spot, you know, and he can't see.

He likes the broads too much. That's what I'm talking about.

Exactly. He's become Mr. Hollywood.

But all this exposure's not needed.

narrator: In New York, the other families are beginning to lose patience with Bugsy Siegel.

There were stories that Virginia Hill stole money.

There were stories that Bugsy Siegel stole money.

And the investors are not happy with all that.

And, eventually, mobsters get together and are debating what are we going to do about this?

(car horn honking)

(clock ticking slowly)

(door opens)

What happened?

Virginia Hill is what happened.

One of our guys at the airport just spotted Miss Hill on a flight to Switzerland with a ton of luggage.

The Flamingo is packed every night.

They're turning people away at the door.

Where the hell is the money?

I'll tell you where it is.

It's on a damn plane to Switzerland with Virginia Hill.

It's gotta be done, Meyer.

(sighs) Lucky and I don't like it any more than you do.

Frank...

Let me talk to him.

♪♪

♪ Jesus, I am coming home today ♪
♪ For I have found ♪
♪ There's joy in Thee alone ♪
♪ From the path of sin ♪
♪ I turn away ♪
♪ Now I am coming home ♪
♪ Jesus, I am coming home today ♪
♪ Never, never more from Thee to stray ♪ (phone ringing)

♪ Lord I now accept Thy precious promise ♪

(g*nshots)

(g*nshots continue, glass shattering)

(phone ringing)

(ringing continues)

Bugsy: To the Lower East Side g*ng.

Salud.

You came all this way to see me go?

Had to say good-bye.

Polisi: In the life, you justify your actions and you figure a way out to make yourself believe that it's okay to do illegal things, immoral things, commit acts of v*olence.

You can't have any regrets.

narrator: On June 20th, 1947, Bugsy Siegel is sh*t nine times in Beverly Hills.

Siegel becomes the first of Luciano's original crew to be k*lled.

The death of Bugsy Siegel still...

It's like the death of John F. Kennedy.

It's a big mystery.

He lost a lot of the mob's money.

And he had done something that people got k*lled for doing with the mob.

And the people most often k*lled by the mob are other mobsters, so it seems to fit that pattern.

Green: Exactly what was decided is not entirely known.

As for who did it, there have been stories that it was this hit man or that hit man.

That it was because of the skimming, that it was due to the Flamingo not making profits.

There's even a theory that because he and Virginia Hill had a very difficult relationship, that her brother was avenging that, and it had nothing to do with the mob.

What happened?

Well, according to the Beverly Hills Police Department, it is still an open case.

narrator: 20 minutes after his m*rder, Meyer Lansky's men take control of the Flamingo.

♪♪

narrator: In 1947, Bugsy Siegel, one of Lucky Luciano's oldest friends and business partners, has been m*rder*d.

And while the mob has moved quickly to take over Siegel's hotel in Las Vegas and Luciano's authority has been restored... another member of Luciano's operation begins organizing his own fight for control.

Frustrated by his lack of power within the Mafia...

Vito Genovese wants to be boss again and begins to look outside the Luciano family for help.

He reaches out to a mid-level gangster in one of the other New York families.

A 46-year-old Sicilian underboss in the Mangano family named Carlo Gambino.

Why don't you tell me what's on your mind?

(sighs)

I don't know how much more of this crap I can take, Carlo.

Oh, you know Lucky.

The man holds a grudge.

You think I plan on taking orders from the Manganos and Anastasia the rest of my life?

So what are you waiting for?

The right opportunity.

As should you.

Just stay in the game.

narrator: Genovese sees an ally in Gambino.

A like-minded mobster with ambitions of climbing the ranks of the New York Mafia.

Carlo Gambino was old school, quiet, reticent, secretive, very secretive.

narrator: While Genovese and Gambino wait for their chance to make a move, a new challenge rises for the New York underworld.

In May of 1950, an ambitious U.S. senator named Estes Kefauver forms a committee to investigate the Mafia, including New York's most notorious mobsters.

It's the largest effort to expose organized crime in U.S. history in what will come to be known as the Kefauver Hearings.

A Senate investigating committee held a series of hearings to get at organized crime.

In addition, they made the very smart decision to televise some of the hearings.

narrator: In front of a television audience of 30 million, the Mafia takes the stand.

I decline to answer on the grounds that it may incriminate me.

I refuse to answer on the grounds that it may tend to incriminate me.

Goodman: The witnesses are very cool.

They just take the Fifth, which the Constitution provides, and say they're not going to tend to incriminate them.

narrator: As the hearings drag on, acting boss Frank Costello begins to see his name mentioned in the press, often linked to horrific murders and crimes.

When he's finally called to testify, Costello decides to take a different approach.

Frank, you have to listen to me.

I'm listening.

You gotta take the Fifth.

That's what makes you look guilty.

Moses, will you talk to him?

Frank, the more you talk, the more trouble you're gonna get into.

I can talk to these men.

Talese: Frank Costello was rather unique.

He had hope, aspiration and drive to be perceived as a somewhat legitimate person.

And he thought he was part of American capitalism.

What have you ever done for your country as a U.S. citizen?

(clearing throat) Paid my tax.

(crowd murmuring)

Raab: Frank Costello went before TV cameras when there was an investigation into organized crime in America.

He thought he could outwit some lowly prosecutor or lawyer.

Do you want to qualify your answer?

Yes, I'd like to qualify it.

How so?

I want what I said, specifically what I said, on the official record.

Green: Costello made a mistake in thinking that he could handle a Senate investigating committee the way he handled local politicians.

They're different breeds of cat.

Senator: It contradicts your earlier testimony.

Costello: No, it doesn't.

Senator: Would you like me to refresh your memory?

Costello: Ahem, you don't need to refresh my memory.

My memory's fine.

Senator: I'd be happy to read back your earlier testimony.

Costello: I can refresh my own memory, thank you.

Guy lost his mind.

narrator: With the hearings revealing a weakness in Costello's leadership, Vito Genovese knows his opportunity has finally come.

And with Carlo Gambino on his side, Genovese is ready to strike back at Lucky Luciano by taking down Frank Costello.