All language subtitles for Americas.Book.Of.Secrets.S02E02_English

(gunshots)

>> NARRATOR: They are the kings

of crime.

Fearsome, famous and fatal.

>> FRANK CULLOTTA: I shot him in

the back of the head a couple

times.

>> SALVATORE POLISI: I needed to

cut his testicles off.

I was pretty cold back then.

>> NARRATOR: For decades, the

criminal organization known as

"the Mafia" has stained the

fabric of American society.

>> JONATHAN EIG: They bought the

courts, they bought the judges,

they bought the police.

It was a great investment.

>> NARRATOR: But what are the

secrets behind the Mob's

sinister success?

>> GREG B. SMITH: It affects the

economy, business.

Civilians just don't see it, but

it is there.

>> NARRATOR: How much does our

government really know?

>> TOM REPPETTO: The Mob had

contacts in Federal government,

right through the doors

of the White House.

>> NARRATOR: And how much will

they tell us?

>> FRANK CULLOTTA: If there were

a book of secrets on the

American Mafia...

(gunshot)

...the man who wrote it would

be dead.

>> NARRATOR: There are those who

believe in the existence of a

book...

a book that contains the most

highly guarded secrets...

of the United States of America.

A book...

whose very existence is known

to only a select few.

But if such a book exists,

what would it contain?

Secr histories?

Secret cover-ups?

Secret connections?

Does there really exist...

America's Book of Secrets?

New York City.

January 20, 2011.

Attorney General Eric Holder

announces that the Department of

Justice and the FBI have made

one of the biggest Mafia busts

in history-- arresting 127

alleged organized crime members.

>> HOLDER: This is one of the

largest single-day operations

against the Mafia both in terms

of the number of defendants

arrested and charged and the

scope of the criminal activity.

>> SMITH: The 2011 arrests

managed to corral soldiers,

associates and capos from all

five New York City families

in one sweeping indictment.

Each one of them had a different

scheme going on.

So you had your construction

extortion going on over here.

You had your loan-sharking going

on over here.

And they put them all in one

place.

>> JAMES WEDICK: These interests

that ran those criminal

activities took place probably

in 26 different cities.

And in particular, in New York,

there were five crime families.

Those interests generated, the

FBI has estimated, somewhere

between $50 to $90 billion

in the past 60 to 75 years.

And so, that type of criminal

activity generated huge profits.

>> SMITH: The best example of

the Mafia in the 21st century is

their involvement in the housing

market bubble.

They saw an opportunity, and

they got involved in creating

bogus mortgages.

They would create these

brokerages that would just crank

out the mortgages.

Obviously, this did not turn out

well for the rest of us.

>> NARRATOR: But with the mass

arrests in 2011, had the

Department of Justice put the

final nail in the coffin of

organized crime?

Was the American Mafia finally

dead?

>> SMITH: I think what it really

demonstrated more than anything

is that these guys are still

around.

They didn't disappear.

>> GIL REAVILL: You know the

old line, "the poor will always

be with us," well, the Mob will

always be with us.

They're still dangerous.

They're still lethal.

(gunshot)

>> NARRATOR: Today, organized

crime in America has grown to

include factions of the Russian

Mob, Asian gangs, like the

Chinese Triads and Japanese

Yakuza, and countless other

homegrown and international

crime syndicates.

But for most, Mafia means the

Italian Cosa Nostra, which still

thrives, thanks to its ability

to adapt to the times.

>> SMITH: One of the interesting

things that they got involved in

was to create these pornography

Web sites and get people to give

them their credit cards, which,

they made a lot of money doing

this.

And it demonstrates, more than

anything, that they have kind of

a criminal creativity, that

there's this idea of looking at

something that's new and saying:

How can I make some money out of

that?

>> NARRATOR: According to the

FBI, the American Mafia still

has approximately 3,000 active

members.

And just like the iconic

mobsters of the past, the modern

Mafia's ill-gotten gains still

come at a price: blood, bullets,

and a massive body count.

>> POLISI: They killed for

power.

They killed for revenge.

They killed if a guy was an

informant.

They killed if a guy slept with

a made member's wife.

They killed if you disobeyed

your boss.

>> NARRATOR: Originating in

Sicily, the Italian "Mafia"--

which translated means

"Brave man"-- lives by a secret

code known as "Omerta."

>> REPPETTO: The Code of Omerta,

so-called, was that an honorable

man doesn't talk, that a real

man does not run to the law, a

real man does not talk about his

confederates, he handles his own

problems.

Omerta was thought to be

inviolable.

>> POLISI: You take this oath

not to reveal any information,

and they also tell you, right

there on the spot, that this

membership comes above and

beyond your wife, your children,

everything in your life, that

till your death that you'll

stay in.

>> SMITH: The idea of it was

pretty simple.

You have a group of criminals

who get together and agree not

to go after each other, but to

behave in a relatively

organized fashion, so that they

can maximize the amount of money

that they put in their pockets

by stealing everything in sight.

>> LOUIS FERRANTE: We were

really a secret society.

We didn't talk about everything

we did.

Although you might have had an

idea what we did; we didn't

talk about it.

>> CULLOTTA: I am a product of

my environment.

I was raised in a neighborhood

where there were nothing but

crooks and syndicate guys--

outfit guys.

And I knew nothing better than

that.

My father was also a criminal.

So it was "inbredded" in me.

>> FERRANTE: In my neighborhood,

you join the Mafia and you got

the respect that you were

looking for, you got the women

you wanted, and the wise guys

are around.

They offer you that sense of

honor, that sense of camaraderie

that every kid wants.

In my neighborhood, boy, if you

were in the Mob, you were the

guy.

And I loved it.

I loved that life.

I was willing to die for it.

>> NARRATOR: At the peak of

their power in the 1930s, '40s

and '50s, the Mafia was reported

to be bigger and more powerful

than General Motors and

U.S. Steel combined.

But how did a mob of Italian-led

gangsters control, corrupt and

compromise the police and top

politicians for decades?

What was the secret to their

strength and influence?

>> REAVILL: Well, they did it

with two practices, really:

secrecy and violence.

(gunshots)

Violence was the grease.

Violence was the fuel.

Violence was what made the Mafia

effective.

>> POLISI: I was once assigned

to go down to Florida...

and they wanted to make an

example of a young guy that was

sleeping with somebody's wife,

and they said I needed to cut

his testicles off.

Or-or at least slice 'em,

you know?

I went down there and did that

assignment.

I mean, I was pretty cold back

then.

>> CULLOTTA: There was always

violence in the Mafia.

It wasn't something that was

done just, uh, for the sake of

doing it.

It was doing these type of

things to individuals that would

disobey orders or were

informants.

>> NARRATOR: Las Vegas, Nevada,

October, 1979.

Former hit man Frank Cullotta is

ordered by Tony Spilotro, his

boss, to kill a local hoodlum

named Jerry Lisner, who had

allegedly become an FBI

informer.

>> CULLOTTA: Tony said, "I want

this guy whacked."

I said, "No problem."

I knocked on the door, Lisner

opened up the door, and I said,

"Nobody's home?"

He says, "There's nobody here."

So, as we turned around to walk

away, I pulled a gun out and

shot him in the back of the

head...

a couple times.

I chased him through the house,

shooting...

but evidently, the bullets

weren't affecting him.

I had no more bullets in the

gun, so I started to strangle

him.

The cord broke.

(gasping)

The door opened, and there was

my partner standing there.

He brought in more bullets.

I reloaded the pistol, and I

proceeded to empty the revolver

out in his face.

(gunshots)

>> NARRATOR: Coldblooded

killings, often right under the

noses of law enforcement.

(siren blaring)

But just how did the American

Mafia become so powerful?

And how did they literally get

away with murder?

>> NARRATOR: Throughout the

decades, Hollywood films and the

mainstream media have often

depicted mobsters more like

celebrities than coldhearted

killers.

But is this an accurate

depiction?

Or a dangerous lie?

>> MASCIA: My parents forget

about it.

They would go around quoting The

Godfather to each other all the

time.

The Corleone family was what

people aspired to.

And I understand that was also

the case with the families

operating at the time.

They actually absorbed some of

the customs, like, the kissing

of the ring.

They became the myth.

The Godfather could have been a

recruiting tool for some of the

younger generation.

But I don't think a lot of them

really want to do the dirty work

that it entails.

It's quite violent.

>> SMITH: The Godfather is the

genesis of this concept of the

gangster as an antihero.

And it's almost as if they're

being represented as some sort

of Italian senators or

something, making these

interesting decisions that

somehow are justified, because

gangsters only kill gangsters.

That is nonsense.

These guys steal from everybody.

>> MASCIA: In pop culture, when

I see people being shot, people

being whacked, I just think,

you know, this isn't real.

You know, the truth is so much

more horrific.

My father was in the Mafia.

He went to jail for killing one

person.

He had killed about a half a

dozen more.

In real life, it takes a psychic

toll that you don't see in the

movies.

>> MICHAEL CHERTOFF: If you

really deal with mobsters, what

you come to understand is, it's

not a romantic business.

You're dealing with people who

make money by preying on the

weak.

>> NARRATOR: But where does this

romantic notion of the Mafia

come from?

Is it a simple misunderstanding

of the truth?

Or does it have more secret

origins?

Perhaps even stretching all the

way back to the origins of the

Mafia in America?

At the turn of the 20th century,

as Italian immigrants flood onto

the shores of their adopted

homeland, the Mafia spreads its

criminal contagion to New York

City.

From the small Sicilian town of

Corleone is Guiseppe "The Old

Fox" Morello, the city's first

Don.

He and his mob run an extortion

racket known as the Black Hand.

>> GEORGE ANASTASIA: You would

get a piece of paper shoved

under your door, and it just

would be a handprint, and was

the Black Hand, and you knew you

had a problem.

It was an extortion racket.

These were thugs preying off

their own people.

>> NARRATOR: Those who run afoul

of the gang end up in the

Morello's Murder Factory on

108th Street.

Their bodies are hung or burnt,

then rolled out in an oak

barrel.

It was a sinister sign of things

to come.

On January 16, 1919, the

Constitution of the United

States is ratified to include

that the "manufacture, sale, or

transportation of intoxicating

liquors is prohibited."

For the Mafia, it is the

catalyst for what will be the

single greatest criminal

enterprise of all time--

bootlegging.

>> EIG: Prohibition gave these

guys a chance to make millions

of dollars.

Once Prohibition begins, these

guys who are comfortable

breaking the law-- they have

this incredible opportunity in

front of them.

They can take over this business

that's been banned.

One of the largest industries in

America, the alcohol business,

is now illegal.

>> WEDICK: The bootlegging days

gave them, organized crime, the

ability, overnight, to make more

than $100 million.

>> NARRATOR: The fact that the

Mob was illegally providing

something that most Americans

thought should never have become

illegal only enhanced their

reputation as modern-day Robin

Hoods.

So what if they were also

engaged in loan sharking and

prostitution?

As long as the liquor flowed,

Americans loved their

bootleggers.

And perhaps best-loved of all--

at least as far as his public

was concerned-- was a young,

scar-faced hoodlum from Brooklyn

named Alphonse Capone.

>> REAVILL: Al Capone was a hit

man, and he was the muscle.

He was a torpedo.

And, eventually, he eclipsed the

bosses that he served,

sometimes by putting two in the

head.

(gunshots)

He used to say, "You can get a

lot more with a gun and a smile

than you could get with just

a smile."

>> NARRATOR: At the age of 26,

Al Capone employed an estimated

1,000 men, including Irish,

Poles, Greeks and Jews.

Armed with a decommissioned

military weapon, the tommy gun,

Capone and his gang fought for

control of Chicago.

>> EIG: They did it by

ruthlessly eliminating the

competition.

Let's not pull any punches about

that.

They killed their competitors.

When people didn't want to work

with them, they offed 'em.

>> MEYER LANSKY II: The tommy

gun worked out fine for the

gangsters.

It shot about 700 rounds per

minute.

You didn't have to be a

sharpshooter to shoot one of

those things.

>> EIG: Oh, there were hundreds

of gang-related murders in

Chicago over the course of the

1920s, but not one gangster was

ever convicted of murder.

>> NARRATOR: No murder

convictions.

But why?

Is it possible that law

enforcement officials were

simply sympathetic to Capone and

his criminal enterprise?

Or was there another, more

secret reason?

>> EIG: Capone, one of the

smartest things he ever did was

he reinvested his profits.

And what did he reinvest in?

He bought police officers.

Police officers at the time were

making about the same as dog

catchers, so to give him an

extra 20 bucks a week made a big

difference in his life.

It was insurance and it worked.

>> REAVILL: Al Capone had whole

police departments, whole

governments, local governments,

in his pocket.

>> EIG: They had the system

beat.

They bought the system.

They bought the politicians,

they bought the courts, they

bought the judges, they bought

the lawyers, they bought the

police, and...

it was a great investment.

>> NARRATOR: Were payoffs also

the reason for the media's

kid-gloves treatment of the Mob

during the 1920s and early '30s?

And does this help to explain

the origin of Hollywood's

glamorization of mobsters and

their lifestyles?

One fact is certain-- the only

serious crime that Al Capone was

ever convicted of...

was tax evasion.

And despite his criminal

history, the man known as

Scarface served only seven years

in prison.

He died eight years later of a

heart attack, at his home,

at the age of 48.

But Capone left behind a

legacy-- and an organization--

that would serve as a business

model for the Mob nationwide.

>> EIG: And this is where the

American Mafia, as we know it

over the course of the century,

is really born.

So they get into things like

prostitution, gambling, numbers

rackets, horse races.

They start to move into

Hollywood and they take over

movie theater operations and

labor unions.

>> NARRATOR: Did corrupt

politicians and law enforcement

officials really protect the Mob

from criminal prosecution?

And if so, for how long?

Did the "hush money" run out?

Or was there another, more

secret reason why the Mafia

was ultimately brought to

justice?

(cell door clanks shut)

>> NARRATOR: Las Vegas, Nevada.

Today, the city's world-famous

hotels and casinos attract

approximately 40 million

visitors a year and take in an

estimated $9 billion in gaming

revenue alone.

Once the jewel in the crown of

the Mafia's criminal empire,

Las Vegas rose from the Nevada

desert to become a proud, if

vulgar, monument to the Mob's

former glory.

>> CHERTOFF: The Mob

traditionally went where money

was.

Obviously, gambling and

everything associated with

gambling was very attractive to

them, because you not only make

money by skimming gambling-- and

they did that for years, divided

up among themselves-- but also

people who go to gamble tend to

also engage in other activities

that may be illicit, and that

creates opportunities as well.

>> NARRATOR: With money to build

the casinos coming from labor

union leader Jimmy Hoffa--

courtesy of the Teamsters Union

pension fund-- the Mafia began

setting up shop along the famed

Vegas Strip.

Cleveland boss Moe Dalitz built

the Desert Inn.

New York's Frank Costello had

the Tropicana.

New Jersey's Longy Zwillman

owned the Sands.

Frank Nitti's Chicago outfit

was at the Riviera.

And the brains of the outfit?

None other than Meyer Lansky,

who ran both the Flamingo and

the Thunderbird.

>> MEYER LANSKY II: Grandpa was

the king of the skim.

He was very good with getting

the money that wasn't counted

off the tables quickly and

divided up and back to where it

should be so they could launder

that money.

Huge amounts of money.

A certain amount would go to the

government, but they wouldn't

claim a lot of it, so...

>> NARRATOR: But how did a

criminal gang built on blood and

bullets get to secretly run

not only an industry but

virtually an entire U.S. city?

(flashbulbs popping)

Why did law enforcement allow

the American Mafia to flourish

in Las Vegas?

And why did the Director of the

FBI, J. Edgar Hoover, downplay

the Mafia's influence?

Was there, as some suggest,

a dark secret behind Hoover's

reluctance to go after the Mob?

>> HOOVER: Gambling, vice,

political corruption, and

organized crime.

The fundamental solution lies in

aroused and awakened citizens.

>> NARRATOR: Could the man who

was rumored to have kept secret

files on powerful figures have

been bribed by the Mob?

Or might Hoover's alleged

gambling habit, and rumored

homosexuality, have been used

to blackmail him?

>> POLISI: We didn't know

whether Hoover was gay or not,

but what we did know was Hoover

loved to gamble on horses.

And the way we heard it was the

Mob would fix horse races, and

they would send information to

Walter Winchell, and Winchell

would give Hoover the name of

the horse to bet.

>> NARRATOR: Could the man who

not only built the FBI but who

also took down some of America's

most wanted criminals have been

compromised in order to win

a bet or two?

Or, as some suggest, might there

have been pressure put on him

from other, even higher-level

authorities?

But if so, whom?

>> REPPETTO: Hoover knew there

was a Mob.

FBI agents knew there was a Mob.

Hoover did not want to get

involved in fighting organized

crime, because it would have

meant he would go after

politicians, and the Mob had

contacts in Federal government

right through the doors of the

White House.

>> NARRATOR: In 1950, when two

mobsters were gunned down in the

Democrat Headquarters in

Kansas City, Missouri-- the home

state of then President Harry S.

Truman-- the Mafia's secret

relationship with politicians

made front-page news.

The Federal government could no

longer turn a blind eye on the

Mafia or its covert political

connections.

What followed was a series of

Senate hearings and

investigations--

investigations that led to

a televised face-off between

labor leader Jimmy Hoffa and

future Attorney General

Robert F. Kennedy.

>> REAVILL: Bobby faced off with

a lot of the top, um, mobsters

of the day.

The one that is remembered is

Jimmy Hoffa.

They were like two boys in a

schoolyard.

>> KENNEDY: Did you say, "That

S.O.B., I'll break his back"?

>> HOFFA: Who?

>> KENNEDY: You.

Well, whose back were you gonna

break, Mr. Hoffa?

>> HOFFA: Figure of speech.

I don't even know who I was

talking about and I don't know

what you're talking about.

>> REAVILL: They'd hold staring

contests with each other.

Then Hoffa would end it with

a wink.

This drove Bobby crazy.

During breaks in the hearing,

he'd cover up his microphone and

he'd curse out the mobsters.

He really took it on as a

personal crusade.

He became Attorney General.

Then he really led a campaign

against the Mafia in America.

>> NARRATOR: Finally, in 1964,

Bobby Kennedy's "Get Hoffa"

campaign ended, with Hoffa being

convicted and sentenced to eight

years for jury tampering.

In the process, Bobby Kennedy

had also managed to get

New Orleans Mob boss Carlos

Marcello deported to Guatemala.

>> REAVILL: Marcello eventually

snuck back into the United

States, and he came back with

a burning, burning hatred of-of,

uh, Bobby Kennedy.

And he said, "If you cut off

the tail of a dog, he can still

bite you, but if you cut off the

head of a dog, he can no longer

harm you."

>> KENNEDY: We can start to

work together.

We are a great country,

an unselfish country and

a compassionate country,

and I intend to make that my

basis for running in over the

period of the next few months.

(applause and cheering)

>> NARRATOR: On June 6, 1968,

Robert F. Kennedy was fatally

shot and killed while walking

through the kitchen of the

Ambassador Hotel after giving

a speech in Los Angeles.

He was seeking his party's

nomination to run for President

of the United States.

But there are some who say that

the assassination was not the

work of a lone gunman.

That, in fact, it was a Mob hit.

Retaliation for Kennedy's years

of relentless prosecution.

With Bobby Kennedy's violent

death, it seemed that the war on

organized crime had been lost.

The '70s would herald a new

period of power and prosperity

for the Mob.

And the release of the movie,

The Godfather, in 1972, would

give the Mafia near-mythical

status in American popular

culture.

>> POLISI: A lot of things

happened right about in that

same period.

J. Edgar Hoover died,

The Godfather movie came out.

You know, all this stuff was

happening right around the same

time, and the Mob was changing

dramatically that spring of '72.

>> NARRATOR: For the most part,

the Federal government had shown

little ability or willingness to

stop the Mafia and its illegal

activities, which now included

hardcore pornography and drug

trafficking.

That is, until a powerful tool

was put at their disposal...

a tool that had an unassuming

and, ironically, ethnic name--

RICO.

Coming up...

>> NARRATOR: The Racketeer

Influence and Corrupt

Organizations Act, otherwise

known as RICO, allowed, for the

first time, the Federal

government to prosecute the men

who gave the orders for the

Mafia's crimes.

>> REAVILL: Basically, what it

did was, if a Mob boss ordered

a killing...

but didn't do the killing

himself, he could still be

prosecuted.

Before RICO, that was not the

case.

(siren wailing)

>> POLISI: The minute we had a

RICO statute, you didn't have

much chance.

I mean, they could get you for

spitting on the sidewalk, and

give you 15 years for

conspiracy.

>> NARRATOR: The timing couldn't

have been better.

Because during this period, the

Mafia was becoming larger and

even more powerful.

But were there secrets to their

success?

>> SMITH: The Mafia began to

transition into controlling

unions.

The most obvious example, in New

York City, anyway, is

construction.

They went after the fish market.

They went after the meatpacking

district.

That was when you saw the Mob

just take off.

And the idea of it was pretty

simple.

They would control the union,

and then they would be able to

make millions out of that.

>> NARRATOR: The relentless rise

and scope of the Mafia's

criminal enterprise opened the

door to the most famous mobster

of the modern era-- John Gotti.

>> FERRANTE: John Gotti's reign

was kind of like the dividing

line between the old school, the

old world, and the new school,

the new world.

You know, John Gotti was unique

in the fact that he had a foot

in each world.

He believed in the Omerta, he

believed in death before

dishonor.

>> POLISI: You know, he sort of

had this chutzpah.

He had this stardom about him.

He was very charismatic, John.

I mean, John could sell Lee

Iacocca a Toyota.

He was quick-witted.

He was smart.

He was the Jim Jones of, uh...

of the Mafia.

He could talk you into doing

anything.

>> NARRATOR: New York City.

May 22, 1973.

John Gotti, accompanied by two

Gambino family henchmen, walked

into Snoopy's Bar and Grill on

Staten Island.

Inside was Irish mobster James

McBratney who they believed had

murdered crime boss Carlo

Gambino's nephew.

>> POLISI: Gotti and his crew

went into that Snoopy's Bar, and

they shot and killed him

right... right on the spot.

Everything changed when he

whacked out the guy.

Then everybody in the Mob knew

who John Gotti was.

(siren blaring)

>> NARRATOR: Gotti was arrested

and tried for the McBratney

murder, but thanks to a savvy

Mob lawyer named Roy Cohn,

getting a conviction to stick to

Gotti proved problematic.

>> POLISI: In comes Roy Cohn.

"I got you a deal.

Don't worry about a thing.

You'll do, like, two years, and

it's all handled."

John comes out after two years,

and he's a hero.

I mean, everybody loves him.

He got what he wanted, which was

exposure and notoriety.

He loved it, and he made the

front cover of Time magazine.

>> NARRATOR: By avoiding

conviction, Gotti earned the

only thing that would stick to

him-- the nickname, "The Teflon

Don."

But Gotti's growing fame and

bravado would also draw the

attention of an Italian-American

lawyer determined to make a name

for himself by taking on the

Mob-- Rudolph Giuliani.

>> GIULIANI: This is a great day

for law enforcement, but this is

a bad day, probably the worst,

for the Mafia.

>> NARRATOR: And at his side was

another young and savvy attorney

destined for higher office--

Michael Chertoff.

>> CHERTOFF: ...uh, to these

people that they cannot be above

the law, and that they will be

brought to justice, and they

will be convicted.

Rudy Giuliani's conception was,

if you can go after an

individual family, can you go

after the board of directors of

all the families?

And that was the commission,

essentially the ruling body of

the Mafia, and so if you could

go after that group, you would,

basically, in one fell swoop,

eliminate the leaders of four or

five of the families.

>> SMITH: When you arrest the

lower-level members of the

Mafia, really not a whole lot

happens.

But when you arrest the top

hierarchy, and you put them in

prison for long periods of time,

you seriously destabilize the

organized element of the family.

You are, essentially, cutting

off the head.

>> NARRATOR: The RICO Statute,

along with the legal license to

secretly wiretap suspects,

finally armed law enforcement

with the tools they needed to

shut down the Mob.

>> CHERTOFF: We had wiretaps in

in restaurants, in social clubs.

One set of wiretaps had been

placed in a Jaguar automobile,

which was used by the Lucchese

family.

On top of that, we had thousands

of individual photographs and

videos from physical

surveillance.

>> NARRATOR: In all, 11 top

mobsters were tried and

convicted in the commission

case, but thanks to John Gotti,

one big boss did not make the

trial.

December 16, 1985.

Six hit men, all dressed in

white trench coats, wait outside

Sparks Steak House, in Midtown

Manhattan, for Mob boss Paul

Castellano to arrive.

He never knew what hit him.

(gunshots)

>> POLISI: They went and killed

him at Sparks and then Gotti

became the boss.

John Carneglia-- by the way, who

was a friend of mine-- he was

the guy that actually put the

bullets in Castellano's head.

>> NARRATOR: Gotti's bold and

bloody act would seal his fate.

He was now the undisputed boss

of organized crime in New York.

He was also under more scrutiny

than ever before.

>> CHERTOFF: Gotti began to

fancy himself kind of a man

about town.

He was very public.

Uh, and in doing that, he really

painted a target on himself.

We heard this discussed on tape.

>> NARRATOR: Boldness and

carelessness can go hand in

hand.

>> GIULIANI: If you are

involved in organized crime and

you move up to one of those top

leadership positions, you are

one heck of a target, and the

federal government will come

after you with every possible

tool-- legal tool-- that we have

to investigate you and to

prosecute you.

>> NARRATOR: It didn't take long

for Giuliani to get enough on

Gotti and his fellow mobsters to

throw away the key.

Faced with the prospect of

spending the rest his life in

prison, Gotti's right-hand man

Sammy "The Bull" Gravano agreed

to cooperate with prosecutors.

In exchange for acceptance into

the Witness Protection Program,

the underboss broke the Mafia's

once inviolable code of Omerta

and spilt Gotti's secrets.

>> FERRANTE: I was one of the

first people to hear when Sammy

"The Bull" Gravano went bad.

I said there's no way this guy's

gonna snitch.

>> NARRATOR: Based on Gravano's

testimony, John Gotti was found

guilty on 13 charges of murder

and a host of other crimes.

In April 1992, he was sentenced

to life without parole.

He died in prison ten years

later.

The Mob was dealt a crippling

blow from which many felt it

would never recover.

>> NARRATOR: After the death of

John Gotti, is there still an

American Mafia?

>> SMITH: If there was an

America's Book of Secrets,

the chapter on the Mafia would

explore the idea that there's

an underworld behind the scenes

that people can't really see,

and it affects the economy,

it affects American business,

it affects American civilians.

You just don't see it but it is

there.

>> CHERTOFF: And now we see

organized crime moving into

areas like securities fraud and

cyber-crime, so it evolves and

in that way, the activities of

law enforcement have to evolve.

>> SMITH: What you see today

with the 21st century Mafia is

an entrepreneurship that takes

you into different places that

you wouldn't expect to find

them.

For example, Wall Street.

They got very much involved in

what's called "pump and dump."

It's a kind of scheme that has

to do with making up a pretend

company, getting people to

invest in and then dumping all

the stock, leaving all the

people who invested in this

thing with their wallets empty.

>> NARRATOR: To ensure that

investors wouldn't sell their

stocks prematurely, the Mob

physically enforced a critical

component of their scheme:

the "No Sell" rule.

>> SMITH: If somebody was gonna

try to sell, they'd have to

convince them to hold onto the

stock.

They would bring them into an

office and basically beat them

to tell them that this was a

really bad idea.

>> NARRATOR: The masterminds

behind the pump-and-dump racket

were Wall Street insiders, and

the muscle to enforce it was

provided by one of the Bonanno

family's foot soldiers, Robert

Lino.

>> SMITH: In the tech bubble in

2000, the Bonanno crime family

got involved in a pump-and-dump

scheme in which they were

creating these pretend computer

Web site companies.

My favorite one was Spaceplex,

which was this company that was

supposed to be the next Disney

World.

They created this pretend

company and then floated it as

an initial public offering.

They give the Mafia insiders

shares for free, and the shares

go up in value.

Everybody buys shares in the

thing.

The price of the shares goes

through the roof, and then the

people who know that this is

all nonsense sell everything

they have and then the whole

thing collapses.

>> NARRATOR: The Bonanno family

ran their pump-and-dump scheme

for four years until the FBI

caught up with the scam and

closed it down.

In addition to Wall Street,

Hollywood is another area that

the Mob has had its sights on

for quite some time.

>> CHERTOFF: The Mob

traditionally went where money

was, and there was a period of

time where Hollywood was open to

the Mob and-and they were... saw

opportunities to make money.

>> NARRATOR: Rubbing elbows with

the rich and famous has been the

ultimate mobster's dream since

the first concrete slab was

poured at Grauman's Chinese

Theatre.

The fact that movie theaters

and their concession stands

could be a source for quick and

untraceable cash was another big

draw.

In return, Hollywood has always

struck pay dirt with Mob-themed

films and television shows, like

the hit HBO drama The Sopranos,

which was largely based on New

Jersey's DeCavalcante crime

family.

>> SMITH: There are very

specific incidents that show up

in the Sopranos show that come

directly from the DeCavalcante

family.

>> NARRATOR: Just like TV's

Tony Soprano, the real New

Jersey family boss-- Vinny

Palermo-- ran a strip club.

>> SMITH: And the name of the

strip club was Wiggles.

He-he would skim off the top

and, you know, pocket a

percentage of all the money that

went into the little garter

belts.

My favorite part of this is,

at one point, the DeCavalcante

family was being recorded by the

FBI, and some of the associates

start discussing The Sopranos

and recognizing specific people

within the DeCavalcante family

on the show.

>> NARRATOR: Is it safe to say

that the American Mafia is still

alive and well?

According to experts, very much

so.

But like America itself,

it has adapted...

changed and become

even harder to detect.

It has also become less Italian

and more ethnically diverse,

especially now that other

immigrant nationalities have

moved in, competing for

territory.

>> CHERTOFF: I mean, the Russian

Mob was very vicious and-and

brutal and violent.

Some of the Asian organized

criminal syndicates were very

vicious and violent.

And now transnational groups in

Central America, where some of

the organized drug gangs have

become as powerful today as the

Cosa Nostra was 30 to 40 years

ago.

So the problem may change its

face, but the underlying threat

remains.

>> NARRATOR: Are the American

Mafia's best days behind them?

Or have new methods of

investigation and new laws

succeeded in rooting out and

destroying their criminal

enterprise?

(gunfire, siren wailing)

Probably not.

Because the Mob's best weapon

isn't a gun or a knife.

It isn't violence or murder.

It is secrecy.

Secrecy above all.

And only when all of its secrets

are exposed, will the Mob really

be out of business...

(gunshots)

...forever.

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