All language subtitles for america in color s2 e3

this is the story of America

seen in color for the first time

in the 1920s America is rising

the country puts on a show

but there's a dark side to the boom

organized crime

for 40 years legendary gangsters like Al Capone

Lucky Luciano

and Frank Costello build illicit empires of vice

while crusaders push back

alright boys let's go

the racketeers can't be stopped

and the body count rises

Americans must confront the true scale of mob power

they much bigger

more sinister

and a larger operation than we had ever suspected

this is the rise of the American underworld

as you have never seen it before

I want us to be happy

Cincinnati Ohio Redlin Field

it's October 1st

the opening game of the 1919 World Series

the Reds take on the Chicago White Sox

in the first ever best of nine series

socks manager Kid Gleason is confident

he calls on knuckleballer Eddie Ccott

who LED the league in wins to start Game 1

Ccott and other stars

like left fielder Shoeless Joe Jackson

are expected to power the Sox to the title

gambling is illegal

but bookies have the socks as 7 to 5 favorites

just hours before the first pitch

money pours in picking the Reds to win

crowds in New York's Times Square

follow the game on a mechanical scoreboard

updated live by Telegraph

White Sox fans are stunned

as CCOT gives up 5 runs in the 4th

including a triple to the Reds pitcher

Cincinnati takes the game in a laffer 9 to one

in a stunning upset

they go on to win the series five games to three

Sportswriter Hugh Fullerton smells a rat

he suggests in the New York Evening World

that White Sox players were fixing the World Series

a claim that casts a deep shadow

on the national pastime

Shoeless Joe Jackson and seven other White Sox

are accused of taking $5,000 each to throw the series

this Chicago grand jury

the first ever film

takes statements in September 1920

from the eight players

three of them confess to throwing the series

all eight are charged

with conspiring to defraud the public

here's star pitcher Claude Lefty Williams

a surprising Owen 3 in the series arrives at the trial

the players get a mysterious break

when the confessions go missing

the jury finds them not guilty

baseball Commissioner Kennesaw Mountain Landis

is not so lenient

he punishes all eight with a lifetime ban

Baseball's shame is an ominous sign

nothing in America

is safe from its new generation of criminals

men like Arnold Rothstein

widely suspected of being involved in the fix

his bet clears him a profit of $350,000

but he's never prosecuted

Ross Dean is a new kind of criminal organized

sophisticated

he's based in New York

and operates an illegal casino

in Manhattan's luxury Hotel Metropoli

from the plush bar

he finances bold schemes

like a Wall Street banker

but in the shadow world of criminals

that runs from Broadway

to the slums of the Lower East Side

this is Stanton Street where immigrants live

packed together

it's markets team with young men

looking to make it in America

for some the quickest way to the American Dream

is crime 2 who fall into gang life

are Italian immigrants

Charles Lucky Luciano

and Frank Costello

they will make New York

the center of a criminal underworld

that operates in parallel with respectable society

America in 1920 is a land of criminal opportunity

with alcohol prohibited

independent racketeers are supplying Americans

of all classes with the bootleg booze they crave

it shipped in through a global network

that spans the oceans

this is the only known home movie shot of a rum runner

Canadian Richard Reid

films a smuggling trip on his boat the Hickey

it's travelling down the West Coast

from Canada to the waters off Mexico

its crew relaxes on the 18 day voyage

the hard work

won't start until they've loaded the booze

finally they reach the Canadian schooner Malahat

a notorious floating liquor store

anchored in international waters

The US Coast Guard is here too

but won't have jurisdiction

until the alcohol reaches American waters

Richard Reed and his crew load 16 cases of booze

right under the Coast Guard's nose

while other smugglers wait their turn

$65 for a case of whiskey at sea

will bring you 400 on land

fully loaded the Hickey makes a break for it

the Coast Guard cutter in hot pursuit

reads crew outruns it

and heads for the US mainland

to help quench America's inexhaustible thirst

foul after foul of prized whiskeys

destroyed by government agent

trying to stem the tide

is the federal Bureau of prohibition

but it's chronically understaffed

it has only 15 agents

to stop the flow of alcohol in America

raids like this one on a Park Avenue bar

are filmed for propaganda

but Americans know they can easily get around the law

prohibition has turned millions of citizens

who want to drink into criminals

law breaking becomes normalized

The Addams Family of Brattleborough

Vermont film themselves on a trip to Canada in 1930

a bottle of Scotch takes centre stage at a picnic

it's a luxury the atoms can't enjoy legally in the US

some Americans don't want to part with their whiskey

when they head home

this unknown American bootlegger

has crossed the Peace Bridge from Canada

into Buffalo New York

the agents rip his Chevy to pieces

and find what they're looking for

they're just scratching the surface

hundreds of others cross America's borders

without incident every month

by the mid 1920s in New York alone

there are over 30,000 speakeasies

bootlegging is big business

to control it

the American underworld will organize and expand

like never before

but it's violence will bring it in for me

it's 1925 raucous city

nightclubs are fueled by illegal booze

people openly flaunt the law across the country

nowhere more than New York City it's election season

dashing state

senator and former Tin Pan Alley songwriter

Jimmy Walker is running for mayor

his easy going attitude is captured in a photo op

with the governor of California

well there's anything you want in California

all you have to do is to ring the bell

or press the button

that's all I do want something

California will have it right alongside me

now you're a great character

and you've been a great friend to all these years

can we have the rest of the day to ourselves

Walker is strongly against prohibition

just the kind of politician that

the gangsters want in charge

in November 1925 he sweeps to victory

the stuffy surroundings of City Hall

don't suit a man who will come to be known as

the nightmare

he uses public funds

to renovate a nightclub in Central Park

named the casino

this is where Walkers New York is run

to the sound of an illegal champagne court popping

on his many days off

he can be found on 52nd Street in the 21 Club

an elaborate mechanism

conceals the speakeasy's illegal wine cellar

stocked with booze financed by gangster Arnold Rostein

Jimmy Walker

embodies the connection between the underworld's public

and private faces

during his time as mayor

crime becomes organized and increasingly mainstream

gangsters become front page news

never more so than when kingpin

Arnold Rolstein is shot on November 4th, 1928

in the Park Central Hotel over an unpaid bet

he honors the gangland code of silence

and refuses to name the gunman

before dying two days later

the only person prepared to talk openly

is Irish chambermaid Bridget Ferry

who do you think killed Ross Dean

I don't know who killed him

he had been killed on the street or get into the hotel

he was in the hotel

you don't think he was killed in the house

no he was shot as he was inside the hotel

he was carried through the kitchen to the

settlement sentence

with no willing witnesses

the accused shooter

George The Hump Mcmanus gets off

it's this code of silence

that will let the mob thrive for decades to come

the rising notoriety of the mob

spawns a new genre in Hollywood

seen in this 1927 silent film underworld

a smooth boss named Bull Weed and his girlfriend

Feathers McCoy

hang out in illegal bars

and go to war with the cops

the wealth style and excitement of celluloid gangsters

make them appealing

the mobster mystique is enhanced by punching nicknames

like Jake Greasy Thumb Guzic

Abe Kid Twist Relis

and Tony Joe Batter Zicado

the gangsters notoriety

is amplified by their weapon of choice

the Tommy Gun

this film shows the Michigan State Police

training to fight back in kind

gangsters war with machine guns

so when the emergency arises

the state trooper must fight fire with fire

he Learned the technique of a fire spitting Tommy gun

here again the reign of lead

must be directed effectively

the rapid firing submachine gun

becomes the gangster's best friend

and can be purchased legally

over the counter until 1934

armed with their Tommy guns

mobsters expand their reach and their fame

during the 1920s

Brooklyn born Al Scarface Capone

takes over the rackets in Chicago

he buys his first three Tommy guns

from a hardware store

it's used so prolifically in the Windy City

it becomes known as the Chicago Typewriter

outstanding citizens like the wealthy Birch family

see little of the city's dark side

but there are two sides to Chicago

in 1928 it has the nation's top homicide rate

as they film themselves on Superior Street

they are in the heart of Capone's territory

and when they relax in Linkin Park

they are near the site

of the gangsters most infamous hit

in 1929 Capone's gang murders seven men

in the Saint Valentine's Day Massacre

bringing gang warfare to national attention

Americans increasingly see crime and corruption

as a threat to their everyday lives

in New York

a 5 foot 2 inch congressman named Fiorello Laguardia

runs against Mayor Walker in 1929

vowing to clean up the city

New York City

with six million people

and its annual budget over $600 million

is entitled to wanna leave municipal government

he rages against the city's biggest problem

in every department of the city

Jimmy Walker responds like the entertainer he is

my love for this city

my devotion to it I couldn't tell you about

it's so deep seated in my heart

I feel it with every breath I draw

feel it in my every emotion

and when the votes are tallied

8 85 we're up to 14,008 49 the Guardian 3,006 35 Thomas

uh 1,007 27 NY 48

an electorate drunk on the excesses of the 20s responds

Walker's win appears to Mark a victory for corruption

but the tide is turning against gangster glamour

August 1st, 1931

Newsreels film thousands

as they throng New York's Italian Harlem

for the funeral of five year old Michael Van Galley

Michael is killed by crossfire

as he plays on East 1 hundred and seventh Street

outside a gang hangout named the Helmar Social Club

four other children are wounded

the killer gang leader Vincent Mad Dog Call

is widely known but no one will testify

as Michael's distraught parents lay him to rest

another child points out bullet holes in the wall

it's a signature Tommy gun pattern

Michael's murder coincides with a turning point

in the public perception of the underworld

organized crime is thriving in cities across America

murder rates are at an all time high

gangsters once romanticized play a new role

public enemies

it's 1931 Florida has become a popular vacation spot

for wealthy Americans

the Norman family from summit

New Jersey film themselves

at Miami's Roman Pools resort on South Beach

The Sunshine State

is the perfect getaway from the North's cold winters

the Normans are not alone in choosing Miami

for some R&R

just over a mile away on Palm Island

far more private gatherings take place

at a luxury villa

owned by Al Capone

these never before broadcast images

are believed to capture Lucky Luciano with Capone

alongside New York gangster zero

the artichoke king Terra Nova

photographed on the diving board is Frank Costello

now a mob kingpin dubbed the Prime Minister

four guys from New York who've made it big

while the rest of the country suffers through

the Great Depression

in 1932 presidential candidate Franklin D

Roosevelt promises help and an end to prohibition

your candidate wants repeal

and I am confident that the United States of America

want propel

Roosevelt senses the public's appetite

to take on organized crime and political corruption

in September 1930

while still governor of New York

he creates a committee to examine graft

in New York City

Mayor Jimmy Walker

is accused of profiting from city contracts

in 1932 he resigns in disgrace

and heads to Europe for three years

with his Zigfield Girl mistress

Betty Compton

the feds target Chicago's underworld

as crime spills over state lines

in 1928 while Capone is boss

498 murders are committed more than any other city

but he answers for none

that year he suspected of earning $105 million

around 1.4 billion today

but it's all tax free because it's undeclared

in 1931 the Fed sense an opening

and Capone is hauled into court

Bureau of revenue investigator Frank Wilson

uncovers a secret Ledger

showing huge cash payments to the mobster

proves Capone has been cheating the government

here he comes and there he goes

took two years to get him

but Uncle Sam has lots of patience

in May 1932 he sent to prison for 11 years

first to Atlanta and then Alcatraz

Capone's confiscated Cadillac

is displayed to the public

I will demonstrate to you first

it reveals how he evaded capture on Chicago streets

the fact that this car is

equipped with a regulation police Siren

Siren in this car

would enable Capone to get away at any time

the state of the art vehicle

allowed Capone to monitor police communications

the cone had equipped in this car

one of the first regulation police pickup radios

has ever been installed in automobile

I'll see if we can demonstrate

by picking up a little of the music from here about

and the car can withstand attacks from rivals

another feature about this car is that it is

equipped with bulletproof glass throughout

it's an example of

Capone's brazen disrespect for the law

lock the doors

it is one inch thing

in November 1932

Roosevelt is elected president

and delivers on his promise to repeal prohibition

organized crime adapts to the loss

of its precious income stream

by doubling down on gambling

in Harlem African American gangsters run

the numbers racket

and affordable but illegal daily lottery

played by people from all walks of life

a 1935 reconstruction

tells the public what it already knows

players choose three numbers

the winning combination

is pulled randomly from newspapers

the odds are 999 to 1 in the gangsters favour

illegal street lotteries in Harlem

bringing up to $20 million a year

and open criminality

is still a fixture of day to day life

Fiorello Laguardia

is convinced he's the man to clean up New York City

he charges into the 1933 mayoral race

this is a fight against a cruel

vicious greedy political machine

the voters now agree

and he sweeps to victory

City Hall will now fight back against the underworld

Laguardia immediately launches a crusade

against gambling

the city's most visible symbol of rampant crime

an illegal slot machine business

run by Frank Costello and Lucky Luciano

is his prime target

these machines have been the source of enormous revenue

running into millions of dollars

to the pockets of the criminal element

Castillo has 25,000 machines

placed in Speakeasy's and neighborhood stores

in 1931 this mechanical empire alone

brings him $25 million

Laguardia is determined to rid the city of one

armed bandits

he publicly swings a sledgehammer

at hundreds of seized machines

alright boys let's go

before dumping them into the East River

this is routine work of the police department

confiscated property taken from crooks

gangsters and racketeers

we're giving them no quarter

a huge cache of seized weapons

follows them into the water

pollution is not yet on the political radar

the display reveals the astonishing scale of Luciano

and Costello's operations

but seizing their equipment is not enough

the mayor wants the mobsters

the state appoints ace prosecutor Thomas Dewey

to bring them down

Dewey's problem

is that no gang members will snitch on Luciano

so he convinces several prostitutes

at brothels run by Luciano to turn on him

in return for immunity

in February 1936

Luciano's luck runs out

when he's arrested on prostitution charges

this newsreel footage

is a rare glimpse of the underworld's leadership

during the trial

Luciano's claims of a modest 22,500 dollar income

are shredded

it's more like 10 million dollars

from prostitution and other rackets

the courts slap Lucky Luciano

with a 30 to 50 years sentence

for two years now

I have been prosecuting rackets

every chieftain of the underworld we have indicted

is in jail or is a fugitive from justice

the underworld is afraid for the first time in 20 years

Mayor Laguardia

even hammers his anti crime message into people's homes

when the comic lover reads Dick Tracy over the radio

to New York's Kids

next picture we see Dick Tracy

you know the fine type of Dick Tracy

he's been a detective so long

and he still has that slender form

Lou Valentine why do our detectives get fat I wonder

and say children

what does it all mean

it means that dirty money never brings any luck

but to the mob

the Guardia's crackdown is far from a fatal blow

even though arrests mount up in New York City

America is a nation of boundless opportunity

and far away from the spotlight of the East Coast

crime will enter a new golden age

June 1938 a speedboat enters international waters

three miles offshore from Santa Monica California

it's passengers board a former fishing barge

named the SS Rex

now transformed

into a floating casino

it's commanded by former rum runner

Anthony Tony the Hat Corneiro

also known as the Admiral

he's found a gap in the market

and spent $200,000 to create a tax free betting haven

a 12 minute speedboat ride away

from California's anti gambling laws

the Rex accommodates 2,000 guests and 350 staff

roulette tables

and card games are surrounded by rows of slot machines

gamblers can even bet on which hole

a mouse will run through

the casino is open 24 hours

and rich Californians flock to take advantage

Cornero openly boasts about his business

declaring the wrecks is operated by courageous

open minded fearless American citizens

he takes in over $100,000 a month

Corneiro's in business for a year

when California redefines the 3 mile limit

it brings him within range of the law

Corneiro plays cat and mouse

but needs to be close to shore for his customers

cameras film the Coast Guard pouncing

the ship's gambling equipment

is sent to the bottom of the Pacific Ocean

but Cornero's operation proves there's money to be made

in crime outside the East Coast

in cities like New Orleans

by the mid 1940s in Louisiana

gangsters have established a firm grip

they got their start with corrupt Senator

Huey Kingfish Long

who harbored presidential ambitions

was that to have a candidate

away from the Republican Party

and away from the Democratic Party I for one

am perfectly willing to see that there's another choice

in the United States in 1936

or a chance to have a choice

until he shot dead in 1935

The Big Easy's Underworld top contact is former

bootleggered turn restaurant tour diamond Jim Moran

his nickname is no mystery Jim Moran loves diamonds

he often wears a quarter million dollars worth

these never before broadcast home movies

show Moran entertaining friends

at his Lake Pontchartrain guesthouse and yacht

including crime boss Frank Costello

Moran offers

the underworld a chance to get away from it all

in welcoming surroundings

his guests arrive on speedboats up the Mississippi

a mob vacation in Louisiana means shooting fish

and dining

far from prying eyes

the underworld booms in the Big Easy

with everybody including Diamond Gem getting a cut

the good times are rolling

no one realizes they'll soon end

missing the party is Charles Lucky Luciano

who still running criminal operations

from New York's Dannemora prison

in 1946 he's mysteriously released

he has served just 10 years of his 50 years sentence

there are whispers that the Sicilian born Luciano

supplied information to the US military

during its invasion of Italy

his release requires him to be deported

and cameras film the famous mobster's arrival in Rome

but lucky is not willing to relinquish his

criminal empire

in 1947 he attempts to return to the US

but is captured in Cuba and deported once again

newsreels hound him in Italy

and his crime partners in America

are now also feeling the heat

as the US Senate puts Frank Costello and the underworld

onto the TV screens of millions

well how could you be going into such details

if you weren't personally familiar

with that slot machine operation in New Orleans

well I wouldn't remember the details

and the mob's illegal dealings begin to unravel

Spring 1950

President Harry Truman's popularity is sinking

in the face of a postwar recession

things get worse when two gangsters

named Charles Benagio and Charles Mad Dog Gargata

are found murdered

in a Democratic Party clubhouse in Kansas City Missouri

underneath a portrait of Truman

the state's favourite son

the widely seen images suggest an unholy alliance

between politicians and the underworld

the outcry leads to a Senate investigation

the first of its kind into American organized crime

ambitious Tennessee Senator

Esther Scafalver plans to take it national

the hearings become America's first

great television event

in March 1951 some 30 million are watching

Senator Cavalver subpoenas hundreds of

people with possible connections to the mob

Americans are gripped

they have never seen anything like it before

what was your business prior to being convicted

mobsters like Cleveland's Alfred the Owl Polizzi

are quizzed about their underworld connections

have accused me of being in the Mayfield Road gang

and I absolutely denied it's not true

the star attraction is Frank the Prime Minister

Costello ordered to appear by subpoena

his business interests range across the nation

from illegal gambling to legitimate real estate

and he even has investments in two TV companies

his net worth is a mystery

testimonies give this committee shall be the truth

Costello is tight lived

finally the committee asks him to justify himself

you must have in your mind something you've done

that you can speak up to

your credit as American citizens

if so what are they

paid by tax

but Costello's wisecrack

can hide his fear of the investigation

he draws a line in the sand

Mister Ally

all due respect for the sandwich

I have an awful lot of respect for

I'm not gonna answer another question

twice he leaves the witness table

uh yes yesterday

Mister Stone

you don't mean that uh

he becomes the arrogant face of American gangsterism

next up is the glamorous Alabama native

Virginia the Flamingo Hill

she rises from waiting tables

in one of Al Capone's favorite bars

to become the brains behind a drug trafficking ring

linking Mexico and Chicago

wearing a five thousand dollar mink coat

she credits her wealth

to her good luck at the race track

sometimes I admit hundreds

two hundreds

500 depend on the horse

you still got the horse race

that's the only thing I've now I wouldn't

I don't bet anything now

I'm afraid I'll win

and then they'll say I made more money than I did

she avoids incriminating herself

but doesn't enjoy the attention

she flees to Europe under pressure from the IRS

and dies in Austria in 1965

gang land figures like Frank Erickson and Joe Adonis

invoke their constitutional right

to avoid self incrimination

The Fifth Amendment becomes the mob's escape patch

Erick will you state any legitimate occupation

which will ever participate

I refuse to answer

on the grounds of my intend to incriminate me

I'll be going to answer on the same grounds

or with any other threat

I'll be going to answer on the same grounds

the phrase taking the fifth enters the American lexicon

after interviewing 600 people over nearly two years

Senator Cafauver draws a frightening conclusion

our committee has found that

organized crime does operate on a syndicated basis

cross state lines in the United States

that is a much bigger

more sinister

and a larger operation than we had ever suspected

that is having very devastating and bad influences

upon our economy

upon the moral of morals of our people

and upon our politics and government

Costello's reign as prime minister soon comes to an end

he's convicted on contempt charges

for walking out of the Caval hearing

and spends five years in and out of jail

on May 2nd, 1957

he shot in the head in an attempted assassination

but survives

would you tell us about your health now

we've heard reports that isn't good

I'm making no comments so I have troubles

the would be killer

is a man named Vincent The Chin Gigante

who's working for Castillo's long time rival

Vito Don Viton Genovese

Gigante gets off when

Costello remains true to the underworld code of silence

and refuses to testify

in January 1962 Lucky Luciano dies of a heart attack

his funeral in Naples is a grand affair

covered by cameras from all over the world

and attended

by a host of men in trademark gangster attire

Luciano takes his secrets to the grave

but the following year

the code of silence is sensationally broken

a low level mobster under Vito Genevese

named Joseph Joe Cargo Velachi murders a man in prison

he faces the electric chair

to save himself

he strikes an unprecedented deal

in return for a life sentence

he will break the mob's vow of silence

and how about our first witness today

Joseph Velashi

for the first time

the secret name of America's crime syndicate

is publicly revealed

causing us in Italian causing us in Italian our

our thing and our family in English

the truth about organized crime is laid bare

as you all understand

once you're in you're in

you can't get out

you try but that don't mean that uh

you're gonna stay out

you don't get out and live

they'll hunt you I see okay

the mob puts a price of $100,000 on Velachi's head

but it's never collected

in 1971 he dies in prison of natural causes

followed two years later by Frank Costello

who's buried in Queens in New York City

Velachi's testimony kicks off a 40 year war

by law enforcement against the American Mafia

big names like Carlos The Little Man Marcello

Joseph Joe Colombo

and John the Teflon Don Gotti

are marched into courtrooms