Why Vito Genovese Turned the Mafia’s Biggest Problem | Mafia Greatest Hit - Episode 6

Added: 2026-05-13

[00:00:00]Heat. Heat.

[00:00:01][music] [music] [music] [music] On the 2nd of May 1957, Frank Costello, head of the Luchiano crime family, had enjoyed a dinner with friends in an eastside restaurant.

[00:00:51]We took a cab to his apartment, the Majestic, on the fashionable upper west side of New York's Central Park.

[00:01:05]As Costello entered the lobby, a large man stepped out of the shadows, raised his arm, and said, "This is for you, Frank.

[00:01:21]>> [music] >> This organized hit on a top mafia boss would signal the rise of the most dangerous gangster in America, Veto Genevies.

[00:01:33]>> Veto Genevvesi was never anything but a homicidal [music] maniac.

[00:01:41]probably the most [music] despicable gangster ever to run the streets of this city.

[00:01:48]Genevese's rise will also be a major turning point in the history of the mafia.

[00:01:56]His actions will bring down the full force of the FBI. [music] >> Are you going to have anything to say, Mr. Joy?

[00:02:06]Is it true that you're the head of the mafia in this country?

[00:02:09]>> It is not. [music] Vto Genevies arrived in New York from Naples when he was 15 years old and joined the thousands of other Italian immigrants to hit the city shores at the turn of the century.

[00:02:36]Jenna grew up in the slums of New York.

[00:02:41]From the beginning, he was involved in these terrifying [music] street gangs.

[00:02:44]Violence ruled and he never changed.

[00:02:49]Genevese was a product of [music] the gutter with New York City.

[00:02:53]He was constantly in conflict. [music] Everything had to be out of the barrel of a gun. That was Genevese.

[00:03:02][music] Police records show that over the next 10 years, Genevese was charged with shooting a man in Queens, [music] running down and killing a man in Brooklyn, [music] having a loaded revolver tucked into his belt on the Lower East Side, [music] and murdering another hoodl.

[00:03:34]Vito Jennifies. I'll give you a great example of what he did.

[00:03:38]He fell in love with a woman named Anna who was married to someone else.

[00:03:46]Genevese and his thugs threw her husband off a roof so he could marry her and he married her.

[00:03:55]>> Ra was just a ritual with him. He had no conscience.

[00:04:00]This appetite for killing did not go unnoticed. By the mid1 1920s, Genevies [music] was a hitman for the greatest mafia boss of them all, Charles Lucky Luciano.

[00:04:11][music] [music] Vito Genevies rose to the top by [music] intimidation and the guy who allowed him to do that was Lucky Luciano.

[00:04:28]Luckily, Luciano used Vito Genevese as [music] his intimidator.

[00:04:35]>> Luciano may have looked very cultivated, but he he needed hitman. And when he needed hitman, one of the first people [music] he turned to was Veto Genevese.

[00:04:47]By 1931, Genevese was acknowledged as Lucky Luchiano's right-hand man and under boss and was one of the key hitmen sent by Luchiano to kill rival boss Jeppe Maseria.

[00:05:01][music] Such was his reputation that Genevese was known as Donvito, the great Veto.

[00:05:24]And in 1936, Genevese got the chance to take the top job when mafia boss Luchiano was convicted on prostitution charges and sent to prison for 50 years.

[00:05:43]When Lucky was convicted and sentenced to a long prison term, Veto considered himself to be the heir apparent.

[00:05:53]>> But things didn't go to plan. Genevese now also found himself being pursued.

[00:06:00]Veto Genevvesi had been involved in a murder in the early 1930s [music] and somehow had managed to beat the rap.

[00:06:09][music] The victim had been one of Genevvis's gangsters who had demanded too big a share of a crooked card game.

[00:06:26]>> Now an informer came forward and pointed the finger at Genevese as the man who had ordered the hit.

[00:06:39]>> [music] >> Just as he was about to take control of the Luchiano family, Genevese was forced to flee to Italy to escape the murder charge and the electric chair.

[00:06:53][music] With Genevese now out of the picture, Luchiano sent word from his prison cell for Frank Costello to step in as boss.

[00:07:13]Just like Genevese, Frank Castella was born in Italy.

[00:07:17]He was 4 years old when he arrived in East Harlem with his parents in 1900.

[00:07:23]His father ran a grocery shop and from an early age, Castello despised his humbleness.

[00:07:32]He loathed the way his father was willing to settle for a life of poverty.

[00:07:37][cheering] >> Castello chose the streets rather than work with his father and joined one of the violent gangs of New York.

[00:07:53]In 1915, Castella was arrested and sentenced to a year in jail for carrying a gun.

[00:08:03]But this event changed him and would make him a very different man to Genevese.

[00:08:13]On his release, Castello decided to use his brains, not bullets, to get ahead.

[00:08:21]the people that he worked with uh were prone to violence uh almost by definition and he understood that murderers were bad for business. He would never be a kind of hitman goon muscleman type. He was a gentleman gangster. He was never going to be a thug.

[00:08:42]And he also latched on to something called slot machines.

[00:08:47]And by the 1930s, Frank Stella was known to the underworld as king of the slots.

[00:08:55][music] His illegal one-armed bandit machines were grossing $500,000 a day.

[00:09:01]He made millions. It established [music] him as somebody who was known as an earner, not a guy who goes out and has to commit hits or violent crimes.

[00:09:14]With Genevies gone, Frankella [music] was a very powerful man. He was now the head of the New York mafia, the largest mob family [music] in America. With more than 400 soldiers beneath him, Costello easily filled Luchiano's shoes and continued to add billions of dollars to the [music] family's fortunes.

[00:09:40][music] Far away in Italy, Genevies was just trying to make his way.

[00:09:48]It is said that when he fled the US on the murder charge, he had $750,000 in [music] his trunk. Genevies was going to need it.

[00:10:04]The head of the National Fascist Party in Italy was fiercely against the Sicilian Mafia.

[00:10:11]The Genevies would soon discover that he was open to offers.

[00:10:16]>> Genevacy [music] cottoned up to Bonito Mussolini by providing money, providing donations to fascist buildings and he even managed to pull off a hit for Mussolini in New York.

[00:10:32]There was that newspaper which had been a persistent critic of Mussolini.

[00:10:37]He went to Dun Vito Genevvesi who got worried to his killers in New York and they they murdered the editor.

[00:10:47]>> As a reward for Genevese's donations and services, Mussolini gave him an Italian knighthood.

[00:10:54]But of course, Mussolini was known for shooting mafiosos and so he could never really relax.

[00:11:06]When World War II began, Genevies seized another opportunity.

[00:11:14]That he was a pretty crafty guy, General Basy. Turned out he worked both for the Axis and for the Allies.

[00:11:26]>> When the Americans invaded Sicily in 1943, Mussolini was overthrown. So Genevese quickly switched sides and became an interpreter and adviser [music] to the US military.

[00:11:40]They thought he was doing them a favor.

[00:11:42]What he was really doing, he was running a black marketeteering scheme.

[00:11:48]He was stealing supplies from army bases by corrupting army offices and selling it on the black market in Italy.

[00:12:04]But for all his Sicilian success, Genevies was still wanted for the card game killing, and the New York police had new evidence implicating him.

[00:12:14]A man called Peter Latmper had come forward, claiming he had heard Genevies planning the murder.

[00:12:23]He was now held in protective custody as chief witness against Genevies.

[00:12:31]The American authorities finally caught [music] up with Genevese in Naples in August 1944.

[00:12:46]Genevese was brought back to New York to face the murder charge, but he had no intention of taking the rap.

[00:13:06]On the 16th of January 1945, Latmpa complained that he was suffering from a gallstone problem.

[00:13:15]He was given painkillers by his guards.

[00:13:23]Two hours later, he was dead.

[00:13:28]A toxicologist who had examined his body reported that he had been given enough sedatives to kill eight horses.

[00:13:43]With Latmper out of the way, there was no case against Genevese. [music] The judge told him, "I cannot speak for the jury, but I believe if there was a shred of corroborating evidence, you would have been condemned to the chair. By devious means, you have thwarted justice time and time again."

[00:14:08]Genevese was acquitted.

[00:14:20]Veto [music] Genevese was back on the streets, but he was not the boss. The [music] man in charge was still his old rival, Frank Costello, and he was thriving.

[00:14:33]>> Frank Costello fashioned himself as a non-gangster. He fashioned himself as a businessman.

[00:14:40]uh sometimes bordering on aristocracy.

[00:14:44]>> He mixed with politicians, congressmen, journalists, authors, judges, cops, and city councilors.

[00:14:53]With his connections, Costello developed a reputation as the boss who could bridge the legitimate world and the mob.

[00:15:01][music] The Salvation Army even made him their vice chairman.

[00:15:07]>> [music] >> Genevese could only watch from the sidelines as Costello became a real New York player.

[00:15:17]Genevese was intimidated by Costello's intelligence.

[00:15:22]He knew that Costello could get with words what he could only get out of a gun. And he was jealous of that.

[00:15:31]>> Such was his power that before a judge could be appointed, it had to be cleared by Frank Castello. [music] He didn't just know judges and DAs and politicians. He bought them.

[00:15:44]>> Potential male candidates in the Democratic party went to see him hat in hand asking for his blessings.

[00:15:54]>> He was an absolute [music] corruptor.

[00:15:59]When the mafia gets control of a political and judicial system, when they're deciding uh what bills are passed, they're deciding how justice is made it out, then you're in danger.

[00:16:10]Frank Costello, even though he dressed well, looked civilized, look cultivated, was one of the most dangerous mafiosai in American history.

[00:16:21]>> Castello became known [music] as the prime minister.

[00:16:24]>> That title was given to him by the media. They made Frank Costello the American Winston Churchill in the underworld.

[00:16:33]>> That doesn't mean he was boss of bosses.

[00:16:35]There was no such position. But as a prime minister is in most countries, he was the first among equals and sometimes a little more equal than they were.

[00:16:49]Genevese seemed to be out of it, but he realized the Castella was making a big mistake. He preferred to deal only with the big guys but ignored the little guys.

[00:17:02]>> Frank Costello neglected the troops.

[00:17:07]Frank Costello only concerned [music] himself with the capos and the capos is Italian for captain.

[00:17:15]Members of crews that have been loyal complained they had been neglected that Costello didn't favor them.

[00:17:26]Genevie saw this resentment as his opportunity to begin undermining Castello's leadership.

[00:17:33]The soldiers, the buttonmen in the family knew that Veto Genevese was the real deal. Whereas Costello was a was a person who was a little out of touch.

[00:17:44]Vito Genevese never lost sight of the fact that he was a criminal.

[00:17:48]And Frank Costello lost sight of that fact. Frank Costello started to believe his own imagery, his own myth.

[00:17:58]>> Everybody knew that Genevves wanted Frank's job, but he couldn't take the job. The other bosses wouldn't have allowed that as long as Frank was riding hype. Frank had the connections.

[00:18:07]Genovves did not have the connection.

[00:18:11]>> So what he does is he begins to make sure he's strong that his rackets are beginning to produce money. So he has both money and he has soldiers and he has hitmen in case there's a real showdown.

[00:18:24]>> Now Genevese was waiting and hoping Castella would make a wrong move.

[00:18:31]>> He wouldn't have to wait long.

[00:18:35][music] In 1950, an ambitious Democrat senator from Tennessee named Estes Kafalfa headed a [music] committee to investigate organized crime in America.

[00:18:53]>> Kafalfa called on more than 600 [music] gangsters, underworld figures, politicians, and policemen to testify before them.

[00:19:03]The country was transfixed as the hearings hit the headlines and television channels.

[00:19:08]I remember the Keith Falver investigations. I was a young very young lad and I remember actually watching [music] those and and and it was a real revelation.

[00:19:19]>> I knew >> we began to see that there was these people among us criminals who are very well organized and very deliberate in their activities and controlled a great deal of the criminal activity in this country.

[00:19:35]>> Many of the witnesses refused to say anything. but not Frank Castello.

[00:19:40]He agreed to answer questions.

[00:19:43]>> He thought he could go on the witness stand and come out as a gentleman, as a real businessman, and that he had this kind of outlook or outward [music] appearance that he wouldn't look like a ruption, like a Huda.

[00:19:57]And Castello, built as the most influential underworld leader in America, became the star attraction.

[00:20:08]But then Castello made a miscalculation.

[00:20:13]He surprised everybody by insisting that his face shouldn't be shown on television. And the committee instructed the broadcasters to respect his request.

[00:20:23]>> The television has not gone any part of Mr. Castello.

[00:20:34]The only option left open for the TV crews was to film his hands.

[00:20:39]And the subsequent images of Costello's testimony became known as the hand ballet.

[00:20:45]Whenever the questions about his criminal activities got too tough or too near the knuckle, Castella would rub his palms together, tighten his fingers, grip a glass of water, drum on the table in front of him, or crumple and tear pieces of paper.

[00:21:05]And although the television cameras were not allowed to show Castellum's face, the news real cameras and press photographers had no such restrictions.

[00:21:15]Mr. Costello is going to face the camera and let you have a good look at Costello. As the uh photographer says to the little boy, can you smile a little bit?

[00:21:29]Has this country come up to your anticipations?

[00:21:33]What have you ever done for your country as a good citizen?

[00:21:39]>> Well, I don't know what you claim what I what what you mean by that. Well, you're looking back over the years now to that time when you became a citizen and we're now standing 20 odd years after that.

[00:21:50]You must have in your mind some things you've done that you can speak of to your credit as American citizen. If so, what are they?

[00:21:58]>> Paid by tax.

[00:22:04]>> I pay my taxes. That was his answer.

[00:22:06]Now, in his mind, he thought that was enough. He didn't think that he had to join the army or Marine Corps. I pay my taxes. Everybody pays their taxes.

[00:22:15]They're working for their country. But he was the original superstar. Made my television.

[00:22:25]>> Ridiculed and humiliated, Castello finally refused to answer any further questions and produced a note from his doctor.

[00:22:34]>> A certificate of the doctor who examined Mr. Castello this morning.

[00:22:40]>> All right. I'm in no condition to testify from here in until I'm well enough.

[00:22:49]>> Uh you refuse to testify, further.

[00:22:51]>> Absolutely.

[00:22:53]>> When I testify, I want to testify truthfully and I can't. My mind don't function.

[00:23:05]Costello had been publicly destroyed by the exposure and he left the Kafalava committee hearings as the Justice Department's number one target.

[00:23:16]Once he failed at Kafala, everybody went after him.

[00:23:22][music] He was indicted for tax evasion.

[00:23:24]He was convicted.

[00:23:26]He was indicted for lying [music] to Congress.

[00:23:30]When you are the prime minister, the man who can work the miracles and all of a sudden you fall off your horse and fall on [music] your face, you are not prime minister anymore.

[00:23:41]Frank Costello paid the price of television by him appearing in front of the [music] key food committee hearing and it being televised. That was the beginning of the end [music] of Frank Costello. In fact, that was the beginning of the end of the mob. It took many many years and Frank Costello [music] was the beginning of it because it brought the attention of the general public to what the mob was actually doing.

[00:24:10][music] But for one mobster, Costello's failure was good news.

[00:24:19][music] Veto Genevese.

[00:24:22]and he was going to make the most of it.

[00:24:26]>> One of the things he does, he starts bumping off, killing Castello's hitmen.

[00:24:32][music] The first on his list was one of Costello's top hitmen, [music] William Willie Moore Moretti.

[00:24:46][music] Moretti had grown up with Costello in East Harlem and was now a field New Jersey raketeer with his [music] own army of 60 soldiers.

[00:24:58]He was also one of Castello's strongest supporters. [music] But this planned execution wasn't just business. It was highly personal.

[00:25:09]Moretti had been promoted to Castello's underboss, his second in command. This meant that Genevvis had been bumped down to just the captain of his old crew.

[00:25:24][music] Genevese had chosen his target well.

[00:25:28]Moretti was suffering from advanced syphilis which was spreading [music] to his brain. This had the worrying effect of freeing up his speech and it was now feared that he would start talking to the press.

[00:25:45]Genevies used this to his advantage.

[00:25:48]Because of Moretti's condition, he approached the commission, the Matthews board of directors, and asked for their permission for a mercy killing.

[00:26:00][music] The commission was set up by Lucky Luchiano in 1931 as a democratic system for dealing with all the mob's affairs.

[00:26:08][music] It operated by strict rules.

[00:26:15][music] No boss could be hit without the commission's permission.

[00:26:21]And they gave it to him.

[00:26:35]The hit would take place on the morning of the 5th of October, 1951 as ordinary New Yorkers went about their business.

[00:27:06]Genevies had now made it quite clear to Castello that he was coming after him and Castello was in no position to fight back.

[00:27:16]>> [music] >> He was locked in continual combat with the US authorities over contempt [music] of court and failure to pay his taxes.

[00:27:27][music] Over the next 6 years, Castella was in and out of jail.

[00:27:38]When he came out on bail in March 1957, Genevies finally decided to strike.

[00:27:47]>> Genevies many, many [music] times tried to get the okay of the commission to kill Costello, >> but the commission wouldn't give it. So, Genevese decided to hit Castello anyway.

[00:28:03]Genevese now studied Castello's routine.

[00:28:07]The 66-year-old Castello took cabs or walked to his various meetings around the city like he had always done without the aid of bodyguards or bulletproof cars.

[00:28:20]It made him an easy target.

[00:28:24]Other bosses had a army of bodyguards around them. Costello said, "If they're going to kill you, that's the first ones they'll bribe."

[00:28:35]Genevese gave the contract to Vincent Jaganti who was a former prize fighter who became Genevese chauffeur. [music] He was a real thug tough guy. I mean Kenya at [music] the drop of a hat. He was the mirror image of a Genevese.

[00:28:53]Genevese liked him for that. He was just a ruthless killer.

[00:29:08]On the evening of May the 2nd, 1957, Frank Costello enjoyed a dinner with some friends in an east side restaurant.

[00:29:17]After the meal, he took a cab to his apartment.

[00:29:24]Now, Castello lived in a very upscale apartment that overlooks Central Park.

[00:29:29]It was known as the Majestic Apartments.

[00:29:36]Castella was so sure of himself, even though he knew Genevaci was around.

[00:29:41]He came home one night, walked into his lobby, and he was met by Jaganti.

[00:29:50]Jaganti raised his gun and yelled, "This is for you, Frank. [bell] Costello was covered with blood when he reached the Roosevelt Hospital, but the bullet had only shaved his skull.

[00:30:18]One of Genevese's top soldiers, Joe Velachi, later observed that Jagante had wasted a whole month practicing.

[00:30:28]There's some debate on whether Gigante missed him on purpose or he just missed him out of inepness.

[00:30:38]I choose the latter. He just missed him.

[00:30:43]But there's a rule in the mob. If you try and you miss, you don't try again.

[00:30:50]>> The doorman of the Majestic identified Gigante as Castello's hitman.

[00:30:56]Gagante quickly gave himself up and was put on trial for attempted murder.

[00:31:06]This was a very dangerous time for Genevese. If Castello confirmed it was Gigante, police would come after him.

[00:31:19]But at the trial, Castello observed the mafia rule of Omera, the code of silence, and told the jury that he didn't recognize Gigante.

[00:31:30]Gagante was acquitted, and as he left the court, he walked over to Castello, held out his hand, and said, "Thanks, Frank.

[00:31:49]Genevies knew that Castello alive posed a [music] grave threat to him and he heard that he was secretly meeting with the Lord High Executioner of Murder Incorporated, Albert Anastasia. [music] Guns, ice picks, and strangling ropes were his stocking trade.

[00:32:07]>> He was a tough, ruthless man. Not at all like Costello who [music] was his good friend. If there had been a move against Costello with Anastasia still alive, there would have been a counterattack by Anastasia.

[00:32:24]Genevies decided to strike first.

[00:32:30]The problem was getting to Anastasia.

[00:32:34][music] He lived in a New Jersey mansion guarded by ferocious dogs and barbed wire fences and always traveled with bodyguards.

[00:32:49]Genevies needed somebody on the inside and he approached Carlo Gambino, then an ambitious Anastasia left tenant, and convinced him they would both be better off with Anastasia dead.

[00:33:17]On the morning of October 25th, 1957, at 10:15 a.m., Albert Anastasia walked into a barber shop in Midtown, Manhattan.

[00:33:29]His bodyguards parked the car in an underground garage and then took a walk.

[00:33:40]Anastasia closed his eyes and relaxed into the barber's chair.

[00:33:46]Two men in suits with scarves covering [music] their lower faces walked up behind him.

[00:33:59]Anastasia was literally blasted out of the chair.

[00:34:10]Genevese [music] now sprang into action.

[00:34:13]He immediately announced that he was the head of the family.

[00:34:22]And straight away he turned on his old adversary, Frank Castello.

[00:34:29]Castello knew what it meant. His time was over. His reign was complete. That if he didn't surrender or abdicate, he was going to be assassinated.

[00:34:40]Genevese stripped Costello of all his gambling assets and interests [music] in Las Vegas, Florida, the Caribbean, and New York.

[00:34:48]He only allowed Castello to live on the one condition that he'd get out and never be involved with the rackets again.

[00:34:56][music] Castello sent the message to [music] uh Veto Genevves, Don Veto, it's yours.

[00:35:05]You're in control.

[00:35:14]Genevies had done it. He was now the boss of the largest [music] mafia family in New York.

[00:35:22][music] But he was also in deep trouble.

[00:35:29]Blinded by ruthless ambition, he had ordered two hits on two mafia leaders without the okay of a governing body, the commission.

[00:35:37]>> [music] [music] >> And he had done something else that some commission members found uncomfortable.

[00:35:51]Genevese had also moved big time into drug dealing. [music] >> Genevese always thought that narcotics was a good deal for the mob.

[00:36:02]within the Luchiano family. He was in charge of drug [music] trafficking.

[00:36:09]>> But Congress had recently passed tough new drug laws and many mafia bosses were [music] worried about the consequences.

[00:36:18]Drugs brought heat.

[00:36:21][music] And what I mean by heat is that if you dealt drugs and you got backed and you're facing a lot of time in jail, you're going to roll. You're going to become a rat. [music] Well, you could get up to 30 years in prison.

[00:36:35]>> They felt that if they kept their hand on drugs, they would be able to avoid that.

[00:36:44]>> The mafia heads around the country now feared that Genevese was a loose cannon who didn't play by the rules [music] and his drug trafficking operations could bring the FBI down on them.

[00:36:58]To save his skin, Genevese requested a meeting of the commission to explain his recent actions in New York.

[00:37:08]>> The commission was not supposed to call another national convention which will be held every 5 years for four more years. But Genevacy insisted that the bosses from all the other families and the New York families had to assemble because of these important developments in New York. and he wanted it known that he was a boss of a family. So they picked the same place they had met the previous year. There had been a national convention in a small town in upstate New York known as Appalakin.

[00:37:41][music] It would prove to be the biggest mistake of Genevese's life.

[00:37:51]On November the 14th, 1957, more than 60 senior mafia bosses with their advisers and bodyguards traveled from Cuba, Italy, and from all over the United States to a hilltop estate in a small, sleepy hamlet called Appalachin, 180 mi northwest of [music] New York City and far from the prying eyes and surveillance of the city cops.

[00:38:22]>> [music] >> Appalachin was the home of mafia boss Joseph Babara.

[00:38:30]His guests would include all the most [music] powerful members of the mafia like Joe Banano, Kan Galante, Sam Jianana and Joe Pache.

[00:38:46]>> [music] >> And at the head of the table, Don Vito Genevies.

[00:38:54]>> Appalachian meeting was a meeting [music] of mobsters from all over the country. Keep in mind that the mob as we know it today and as it was formed in 1931 was 100% controlled by the five families in New York. All the other cities were ancillary that answered to the New York mobsters.

[00:39:15]But local detective Sergeant Edgar Cwell of the New York State Police had been watching the events.

[00:39:23]The local police noticed something strange. All these out oftowners and dozens of cars were pulling into one farmhouse in remote area.

[00:39:34]>> Cwell's suspicions have been aroused when he noticed that Barbara was booking up the local hotel. It'd also been tipped off by a local food supplier that Barbara had ordered 20 of steak, 20 of ve [music] cutlets, and 15 lb of coal cuts. That day, Cwell had been keeping a close eye on the Vera as he knew he had mob connections.

[00:40:01]He called for backup.

[00:40:14]Well, we get the call, send as many people as you can to Apple Lake and we have a thing going on.

[00:40:21]>> Cwell ordered his troopers to surround the house.

[00:40:26]>> We had a lot of people that they [music] thought was the underworld and that we were to pick them up.

[00:40:35]And when the guests got the news, there was blind panic.

[00:40:45]Some rushed to their cars. Others fled through the woods, ripping their silk suits against the brambles as they ran.

[00:41:01]Cwell sent his troopers in after We saw one fell. He was standing on the back porch of a local house, but he wore a nice Hamburgg hat and he had a nice overcoat with a fur collar. And we knew right away that he didn't fit in.

[00:41:21]We went in and took control of him and put him in the troop car with us.

[00:41:28]Croswell and his men eventually managed to round up 60 mafia members including New York leaders Grafachi, Banano, Galante and Capino.

[00:41:39]Everybody had the same excuse that they heard Marbor was sick and they all dropped in to see them pay their respects.

[00:41:49]Here you had this obvious convention of Italian or Sicilian uh American mobsters and you couldn't dismiss it just as a casual meeting and the claim by all of them that they went to visit a sick friend. Nobody could swallow that.

[00:42:08]>> The Justice Department believed that at least 50 escaped, including Chicago boss Sam Jian.

[00:42:24]Appalachin was the largest mafia meeting ever rumbled by American police and the mob would never hold one of this size again.

[00:42:35]Far from Genevvisa's triumphant moment announcing to the commission his ascension to the head of the Luchiano crime family, he had exposed them all to the authorities.

[00:42:52]As a direct result of Athalakin, a federal grand jury found 20 mafia members guilty of conspiracy to commit perjury and to obstruct justice and impose sentences of between 3 and 5 years.

[00:43:05][music] Eventually, these were overturned by the United States Court of Appeals on the basis of insufficient evidence.

[00:43:16]But the damage had been done. Genevies had awakened a sleeping giant.

[00:43:24]The FBI.

[00:43:26]>> This is the FBI. The house is surrounded. Back out that door with your hands up. Never mind.

[00:43:32]>> And it hit them like a bunk shell.

[00:43:35]I think the Appalachian organized crime meeting, the meeting of the bosses of America's organized crime in one [music] location really brought home uh to the American public and to the FBI the magnitude of this problem.

[00:43:50][music] >> Up to this point, the director of the FBI, Jay Edgar Hoover, had been reluctant to admit the existence of organized crime in America.

[00:44:01]He had even written there was no such thing as organized crime or the mafia and the claim that there was a national crime syndicate was baloney.

[00:44:13]All of a sudden, [music] everything that they had been saying, that there was no national organization, that crime was essentially local and it was for local law enforcement to deal with became obviously incorrect.

[00:44:32]They [music] were so brazen. They were so bold and so powerful that they would actually have a meeting much as any large legitimate American corporation would meet to decide internal issues if you will of their organization, their direction, what they [music] wanted to do in the way of a legitimate company would do. This this really imprinted itself on the American public and [music] certainly on the FBI.

[00:44:57]>> That was it for the FBI. I mean, if there was a moment where it was absolutely patently clear that they [music] had a role to do that they had not been performing, that was it.

[00:45:12]All this changed after Appalachian. The FBI were galvanized into action.

[00:45:19][music] Hoover immediately commissioned a special report to confirm whether the mafia actually existed.

[00:45:28]It declared, "The truth of the matter is the available evidence makes it impossible to deny logically the existence of a criminal organization known as the mafia, which for generations has plagued the law-abiding citizens of Sicily, [music] Italy, and the United States.

[00:45:48][music] After the Appalachian meeting, the intelligence [music] gathering about organized crime became very much institutionalized inside the FBI.

[00:46:05]Most of the investigations were intelligence investigations where we gathered information about who they were and the kinds of activities they [music] were involved with.

[00:46:21]>> [music] >> As a direct result of the Appalachin raid, the Federal Bureau of Narcotics was instructed to target Veto Genevese in their fight against drugs.

[00:46:36][music] >> Open up.

[00:46:39]>> What about uh the [music] government's charge that you're the right man, that you're the number one man in this narcotics business?

[00:46:44]>> Charges are fantastic and ridiculous.

[00:46:47]And have you ever known anyone in the narcotics racket? Have you not known?

[00:46:51]>> I never did.

[00:46:55][music] [music] On April the 17th, 1959, the man who had gotten away with murder for so long [music] was finally nailed in a Manhattan federal court.

[00:47:13]Donvito Genevvis was fined $20,000 [music] and sentenced to 15 years in prison for masterminding an international narcotics syndicate that smuggled [music] heroin and cocaine into the United States.

[00:47:29]Never underestimate the menace that uh Vito Genevves left with his even with his departure.

[00:47:37]It was he who was so instrumental, one of the key players in bringing in the scourge of heroin narcotics into [snorts] America.

[00:47:47]Without him, it might never have occurred. He opened up these opportunities that the mafia would use widespread distribution into the inner cities of America, the biggest cities, New York, Chicago.

[00:48:03][music] For the first time, you had the mass appeal of a narcotics contagion that enveloped the country.

[00:48:12]And uh one person who has to bear some of that responsibility is Don Vito Genevves.

[00:48:22][music] Vito Genevies continued to rule his organization unchallenged from his prison cell.

[00:48:36]He died there on February the 14th, 1969 of a heart attack.

[00:48:46]His legacy that he left behind the [music] most powerful mafia organization in America that bears his name to this day. The Veto Genevese family continues to [music] make millions of its criminal activities.

[00:49:03]But he left another more damaging legacy to the mob. Genevese had exposed the mafia to the FBI.

[00:49:12]The Appalacin disaster would signal the beginning of their crackdown on organized crime in America.