Mafia

I’m gonna make you an offer you can’t refuse. Calling all wise guys, made men, and mobsters alike. We’ll unravel a dark hidden underworld where murder, mayhem, and money laundering are commonplace and par for the course. These goombahs and their goons glorify violence and live by a code of silence. Snitches and rats beware. Forget about it! We’ll demystify the mafia on this week’s episode of FYI!

Transcript

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[Music] I'm gonna make them an awful camera for you calling all Wise Guys made men and Mobsters alike we'll unravel a dark hidden underworld where murder Mayhem and money laundering are commonplace and par for the course these Goombas and their goons glorify violence and live by a Code of Silence snitches and rats beware forget about it we'll demystify the mafia on this week's episode of f why I I welcome to for your info English you got it you got it[Applause][Music][Applause][Music][Applause] hello hello hello and welcome to another exciting edition of FYI the topic based show where we learn about everything and anything and if you haven't found a topic you'd like to hear about in the over 200 episodes available please let me know I'd love to hear from you today we're gonna take a look at a topic that I'm familiar with unfortunately I'm not a big fan of organized crime but I do believe that the stories are fascinating and now that I think about it I'm not a fan of any kind of crime but coming from a sicilian-american family that immigrated to the United States around the same time as these mob guys and as we're gonna see there are many different ways to call a mafia guy a mafioso a made man a wise guy hey wait those are all all in our intro so let's take a look at our intro but before we do that I just want a little disclaimer here I think I've made it clear but in no moment do I want to glorify violence of course we're gonna laugh we're gonna have some fun we're gonna learn but violence is just that violence and it's unnecessary oh and we're also gonna highlight the Italian-American Mafia in the United States although there are mafias all over the world you've got the Yakuza the Russian Mafia the Chinese Mafia but in the end our idea is to tell these fascinating stories of business murder Mayhem we started out hearing Vito Corleone played by the one and only Marlon Brando and that famous line I'm gonna make you an offer you can't refuse and as you know that's used even in pop culture these days when you're saying saying that you're going to threaten someone and to threaten is then I said calling all Wise Guys now why is this Sabio somebody who's wise knows a lot of things when we talk about wise we talk about owls but Wise Guys is another way to say a mafioso a made man a wise guy or a mobster and as I said before the mob is another way to say the mafia then I said we'll unravel and to unravel means to explain to solve in Spanish we'll unravel a dark hidden underworld and hidden just be careful with that word it's hide hid hidden I've heard a lot of students say Haydn but the participle is hidden we'll unravel a dark hidden underworld where murder no more murder Mayhem Mayhem is another way of saying chaos and money laundering money laundering is Blanca miento de capitales so where money laundering our commonplace and par for the course this is an expression that comes from golf and then I wrapped up saying these Goombas and do you remember that word from our Sopranos episode a Goomba is a guy it comes from the word Compadre Compadre in Spanish but when they say quickly in Italian it sounds like so Goomba and don't mix up Goombas with gumas Goombas are Italian Guys and gumas are their Affairs the the woman their lovers is the word I'm looking for it's very well known that mafiosi are not really faithful to their wives so the Goombas have a what language are we speaking and then I said they're goons and goons are like matones these big gorillas the Goombas and their goons glorify violence and live by a Code of Silence did you catch that rhyme in there and then I said snitches and rats beware those are two ways to say somebody who tells on somebody or rats somebody out jivarce and then I said forget about it which as we said in The Sopranos episode has a lot of different meanings if you recall I said there's a scene in the famous movie Donnie Brosco with Johnny Depp where he explains it but we're not going to talk about movies right now we're going to take a look at movies in the bonus episode and just a quick reminder guys we have a bonus episode every week where you can learn so many Expressions vocabulary structure common mistakes and tons of fun facts and if you want access to that bonus episode as well as PDFs with all the vocabulary well then you should consider joining our curious community on patreon it's patreon.com Alberto Alonso and you can get classes with me weekly group classes where we review each episode if you're in our highest level our Interstellar level well you can even get a monthly private class with me all the information's over on patreon.com slash Alberto Alonso and in the bonus part today we're going to take a look at this crazy cast of characters some of the most ruthless gangsters ever oh and funniest too we'll also take a look at an old law that finally put so many bosses Behind Bars we'll learn some Mafia vocab and tons of fun facts if you'd like to join us in the bonus part consider joining us on patreon patreon.com Alberto Alonso for more information and I'd like to send a shout out to all my patrons especially my super duper students Javier Paco Roberto Jose Maria Mila and Alex and don't forget about my Interstellar students the ones who get a private class with me every month Carmen Lina Issa Paco David and Edgar keep up the great work guys I've got to say we are like a family oh and speaking of families let's get back to the family the coza Nostra let's start with a little etymology the word mafia derives from the Sicilian adjective mafiyusu with a u and I'm gonna stop doing that voice before I destroy my vocal cords but the word mafusu is roughly translated as bravado boldness Swagger hey it makes sense and if they use it in reference to a woman which would be mafiusa instead of Mafia it means beautiful or attractive see did you know you were going to be learning some Sicilian here today well in order to trace the roots of the Italian mafia in New York in the United States we have to go to Sicily and there were several criminal organizations in Italy you had the Kimora in Naples but the mafia down in the south in Sicily they were perhaps the strongest and they were the ones who decided that it was time to go to the new world and as many of you know there was a lot of immigration to the United States at that time not just Sicilians but a lot of these people who were coming over they were promised that they would have a job that the streets were paved with gold and then they got there and they realized wait I barely speak the language I don't have any skills I can't get a job what am I gonna do and of course as nationalities and cultures do they stick together and they help each other out so at first the mafia came as a sense of necessity not to the clients but to the actual mafiosi their excuses that they couldn't find real jobs so they had to come up with their own organization but this organization didn't follow many rules although they do have some strict rules that all the mafiosi have to follow and we'll take a look at those Ten Commandments a little bit later and so the mafia in the United States emerged in the area of Five Points I'm sure you guys have seen it in Scorsese movies and many movies and Capone was a person who frequented that area five points but these gangs were starting to show up in these immigrant neighborhoods in New York's East Harlem or as it was called then Italian Harlem the Lower East Side and Brooklyn and they were even seeing some activity in New Orleans and Chicago during the late 19th century and early 20th century again it was all linked with waves of Italian immigration from Sicily and other regions of southern Italy so sure when the United States opened its doors with Ellis Island Island in 1892 they came here looking for opportunities they didn't find them so they made their own opportunities and still to this day the mafia is most active in the northeastern United States the heaviest mob activity is in New York Philly Baltimore New Jersey Pittsburgh Buffalo Boston I mean these are major cities where you'll see the mafia but the mafia has even extended their tentacles to small town America hey wherever there's a buck to be made there's a racket what a racket no not a tennis racket a racket in this case is an illegal business and the charge is called racketeering but if you noticed I didn't even mention Florida Las Vegas I mean there are movies and books written about the mafia in Las Vegas the mafia built Las Vegas that's a true statement and let's not even mention Los Angeles and their influence in Show Business some people say that Frank Sinatra wouldn't do anything without the mafia's permission and as a punishment once he had to play a certain gangster's club for three or four nights in a row so they had their claws in everything so to answer the question I said at the beginning where is the mafia everywhere everywhere there's money to be made at the mafia's peak there were at least 26 cities around the U.S with cosanostra families in New York you've got the five families as they're known The Gambino family the lucheze family the Genovese family the Bonanno family and the Colombo family and up until that time these families were in competition and when you're in competition with each other in the mafia you don't settle your disputes with a handshake or a signature you settle them with lead blomo as you say in Spanish and lots of it and there were many mafiosos who believed that they were doing things the wrong way because one thing is to make money and one thing is to gain a really bad reputation for being cold-blooded Killers so there was a certain faction in the mafia that said hey come on guys we've got to run this like a legitimate business no more killing each other in the streets like those old gangster movies when you pull out machine guns and fill everybody full of lead we've got to sit down we've got a dialogue we've gotta come up with answers so that we can share and we all get our piece of the pie and they created something called the commission and this commission was like the board of directors the executive committee where the bosses of all the families would sit down and divvy up all their territories all their businesses so they wouldn't have to be killing each other in the streets anymore the person who created the commission was a guy named massaria the boss he was the boss at the time but his underling Lucky Luciano and we're going to look at all the different positions a little bit later his underling Lucky Luciano killed him and even though the commission didn't have enough official boss because it was a way to share the power everybody knew that Lucky Luciano was responsible for bringing everybody together in an orderly fashion he believed that there needed to be a Changing of the Guard they needed to clean up their reputation and they needed to think about business and money instead of blood and guns now he said that as he killed his boss and the way massaria was killed is Lucky Luciano took him to lunch he went up to go to the bathroom and a few guys came in and that was the end of that and Lucky Luciano was Unstoppable after that he removed Sal maranzano well not him personally he ordered the hit and to order espedir kelagan and a hit is in fact a Hitman is unsigario and as I said lucky did this he got rid of these old bosses because he felt like they were stopping They Were Somehow preventing the mafia from growing and we're going to talk more about Lucky Luciano because they call him the father of the modern Mafia he modernized it and of course he had a few friends helping him out but we'll take a look at some of the most famous mob bosses in the bonus part let's take a look at the hierarchy as I said before you've got the boss which is obviously the boss that person calls the shots the Undisputed leader of the family this person gets a share of all the prophets and makes all the final decisions or as we say has the final say and right under the boss you have an under boss who is the second in command and for all intents and purposes the heir to the throne if something were to happen to the boss oh and spoiler alert usually bosses don't live to be very old unless you're Lucky Luciano earning his nickname but more about him in the bonus part next you've got your consigliere and that's like your lawyer your closest advisor your business advisor then you've got capos then you've got soldiers and the soldiers are the ones that do the Dirty Work like the Hit Men those are the guys who are getting their hands dirty and then you've got your Associates and your Associates are connected without being a part of it so if you're in a company it's like and in order to be an associate you don't have to be Italian or Sicilian which those were the original rules to be in the mafia and that was another thing that Lucky Luciano changed he said wait why can't we work with other nationalities this guy's a great businessman even though he's in the Jewish gang I think we could make a lot of money together so instead of focusing on personal vendettas from Sicily he was thinking how can we all make more money but the older guys well as you can imagine they were more traditional the best thing that ever happened to the American Mafia and I imagine the mafia anywhere near the Americas prohibition foreign the 18th Amendment mafia members saw their prophets boom because of the bootlegging and that's a good word illegal alcohol we called it bootleg because they used to hide it in the leg of their boot but now to this day you can say oh that's a bootleg copy so it's used for copias in general no solo alcohol and they realized bootlegging was big money they made a lot more money than they did off their traditional businesses such as protection rackets extortion gambling prostitution and this got so many people involved with the mafia because if you think about this this new industry that they went into illegal alcohol bootlegging required members of all different employment levels you needed bosses lawyers truckers warehouse workers distillers and it seemed like the party would never end especially for Al Capone who made a lot of his money during prohibition and we're going to talk more about Al Capone when we take a look at our cast of characters later on but like every party the music ended and the lights came on and prohibition was over most Americans were celebrating not the mafia but they knew that if they wanted to stay relevant and continue to make money that after 1933 when prohibition was repealed they Diversified as we say and they went into other businesses such as illegal gambling operations and we're going to talk about Las Vegas in a little bit lone sharking and a loan shark is somebody who gives you money when you need it they loan you money when you need it but then they charge you so much for the interest oh and if you don't pay them back you don't want to know what's going to happen and then you've got extortion protection as I said before my family has a link to it now we were never involved in the mafia we never killed people but again if you remember my family they were Sicilians Sicilians who came over on the same boats as these people some of them and they had businesses and they wanted to make sure those businesses were protected so has my family donated money to the cause I can imagine they have well what was the other option and when the mafia really really found their Cash Cow is when they were able to infiltrate unions in the mid 20th century they infiltrated the Teamsters Union the Teamsters Union is all the shipping and trucking you probably recognize the president of that Union Jimmy Hoffa a gangster whose body has never been found and you can hear the story of his life or I should say you can see the story of his life in Martin scorsese's the Irishman and my dad is a member of the Teamsters Union because he was a truck driver they also infiltrated the International longshoremen's Association so that's the docks Los muelles everything that came in and out of the United States and many people say that New York City as we know it today would never have been built without the mafia well as we know it today I'm sure it would have been built anyway but most of the iconic buildings and the buildings that were built during the 80s were built by the mafia everybody who lives in New York knows that if you've got a construction project or at least back then you had to be connected again they had the unions they had the cement company and you could not move one brick in New York City in the 80s without the mafia's permission and you can imagine they were marking it up and tremendously not just one percent and if these construction companies didn't play ball okay no problem stop all the workers and we all know what happens when there's no work done on a construction site every minute you're just burning money so they had no choice the mafia found their way into that industry another industry in the United States that they're very very famous for being involved in is sanitation waste removal if you remember in The Sopranos that was one of Tony sopranos's businesses and The Sopranos just like the Irishmen and many of the movies we're going to see later on are all based on true stories even if they're just Loosely based they really happened many of the stories from Goodfellas from The Godfather they just changed the names and the situation a little bit so they basically bribed their way into every industry and to bribes sobernar and they were able to do that too because of their Code of Silence they didn't have many rules when it came to killing people but if you opened your mouth that was the end of it for you I think many of you have heard of this Code of Silence I've heard it pronounced both ways and if you failed to follow along with this Code of Silence I think you know what would happen to you right now we're gonna hear an audio clip of Joseph Michael valachi and he was an American mobster in the Genovese crime family he was the first member of the Italian-American Mafia to acknowledge that it existed publicly and this is an audio a very famous audio of him testifying in 1963 and he talks about omerta the the Code of Silence and also about the initiation ceremony let's hear volachi and see if you can keep up with him he's got a really raspy voice and he's got a very Italian-American accent if you guys are patrons don't worry you'll have the vocabulary in the PDFs and there was a gun and a knife on the table and how many were at the table about 35 to 40. and sat me down and uh and and made me repeat in Italian to set you down at the table or in a chair out front sat me down on the end of the table what mud and Zion are doing the talking next to myan's on all right I you sat next to him then what happened well he had the knife and a gun on the table I repeated some words he told me but I only could explain what he meant I could repeat the ways but they were in Sicilian they were what insicilian and Sicilians you repeated but you didn't understand what they meant right and they explained they explained what they meant who explained maranzana while he could talk pretty good English Madan he'd talk 12 languages uh he didn't get he went on to explain that you lived by the gun and buy the knife and you died by the gun and buy the knife what kind of a ceremony did you go through well then I'm taking that oath well then I uh he gave me a a piece of paper I suppose you know and Vine it and now without burning the paper just take a piece of paper there and show us what what how you did it and you don't even set the paper if I ever take a piece of give him a piece of paper let's demonstrate just what you did in other ways now this piece of statement paper is Boing stapers yeah and then in your hand you say well again they give you words in Italian but I know what it meant in other words while you were repeating the words you were burning the paper right this is the way I buind if I expose this organization and you were that was uh everybody out of the faith that was to befall you if you betrayed the organization until the piece of paper blinked you'd be burned to ashes right now what else did you do in that ceremony and after that they uh they got around the table and their true numbers they drew what numbers between one to five but for instance how you mean well here like this throw three or one no five let's say the way you got a table there right now everybody throws a number in other words we'd start down here at the table somebody hold up a number each one and hold up some fingers again we can't they could hold up as many as they wanted to up to five up to five all right that's about all the older ones let's say we start from you Senator yeah we start with me and let's say it's 35 40. and I put up two right and he put up some yeah you add it all up let's see we add it all up let's say we get a figure about 38. about 38 almost not from you and let's say you go all around and it comes to uh he is my what you call Godfather then he he he picks your finger Who The Godfather he picks your finger he picks your finger with a needle makes a little block come out in other words that's the express the blood relation supposed to be like brothers that's the letting of blood that's right in other words uh symbolic of the fact you're willing to spill your blood right to give your blood to give your life yeah as to what I'm telling you now I need to go no further to just say nothing else this is what I'm telling you what I'm exposing to you and the press and everybody this is my Doom this is the promise I'm breaking that I now even if I talk I should never talk about this and I'm doing so that's my best way that is the highest old future right in other words that was the most sacred in in this organization right I wanted you would never tell this right right there you go folks pretty interesting stuff there a piece of History I hope you guys have enjoyed the first part of today's show and that you'll join us in the bonus episode of today's f y i foreign[Applause][Music][Music]