S1E116 - Louis Ferrante - An Offer He Couldn't Refuse
Former Gambino family mobster Lou Ferrante joined us for an episode about his three volumes of research on the Mafia. He spoke of the alleged role of the Mob in the JFK assassination just as the files were about to be opened and he and Michael Krasny explored the ethos of the Mob -- the law of Omerta and the past frequency of so called "whackings," as well as the perks of being a mobster and such Cosa Nostra figures as John Gotti, Henry Hill and Joey Gallo. They spoke of politicians and the Mob and how the mob is portrayed in film and television and they exchanged humorous narratives as Ferrante told a funny personal tale and Krasny told a joke. Ferrante spoke of his prison experiences and how he became a writer while incarcerated, including the influence on him of historian Barbara Tuchman. Krasny asked Ferrante of analogies he made in print between the Kennedys and the Medicis and the episode concluded with Krasny drawing out a humorous story from Ferrante about Cuba, President John F Kennedy, Ian Fleming and the CIA's Allen Dulles, and asking Ferrante about the ultimate fate of Teamster leader Jimmy Hoffa and what drives and inspires Ferrante to write.
Biography
Louis Ferrante is a former Mafia associate and heist expert who served eight years in prison after refusing to incriminate his fellow Gambino family members. His last book, Mob Rules (HarperCollins), was an international bestseller, and his Discovery Channel Series, Inside the Gangsters Code, earned him a Grierson Award nomination for Presenter of the Year.
Ferrante has just released his new book, Borgata: Rise of Empire, “a riveting history of the Mafia’s first one hundred years, from 1860’s Sicily to 1960’s America.
The culmination Louis Ferrante’s exhaustive research delving deep into Sicily’s socio- economic-political roots, Borgata: Rise of Empire will finally reveal exactly how and why this infamous secret society formed inside Sicilian culture. Ferrante then engages in the art of storytelling by carefully selecting stories about the mafia in Sicily that allow him to follow the main characters to America, where most arrive as fugitives from Italian justice.
Across the Atlantic, the storyline picks up in places like New York and New Orleans, where the clannish Sicilians quickly realize the importance of diversity as they forge
new alliances with other recently arrived ethnic groups as the borgata becomes the premier organized criminal network in the country. After planting their flags in cities across America, the adolescent American mafia realizes how to corrupt America’s police and political establishment, and they become experts at bribing public officials, allowing them to extend their tentacles into every level of American society. “
Conversation recorded on January 31, 2025.