hey everyone welcome to the show great to be
diving in okay so imagine this a world where
just like a handshake could seal a death sentence
where loyalty bought in blood and betrayal well
that just means you disappear it sounds like
fiction but for decades this was absolutely real
Right inside American society. Exactly. And today
we're pulling back the curtain. We're jumping
into the nonfiction history of it with Peter
Moss's The Valachi Papers. You can find the link
on Amazon. It's down in the description. And
this isn't just, you know, another crime story
listing facts. No, not at all. It's this incredibly
intimate look at a secret culture, a whole criminal
organization laid bare. And it's from the inside
by the first guy who actually dared to break
their sacred oath. Yeah. Joseph Valachi. His
story is just. Unprecedented. So if you're ready
to get into these hidden layers of history, you
know what to do. Hit that like button. Subscribe
for more deep dives like this. What's really
fascinating, I think, beyond just the story itself,
is the fact that this book even exists. Veloci,
a longtime member of the Cosa Nostra, he was
the first one, the first member to ever publicly
admit, yes, this thing exists, and then go on
to detail how it all worked. Wow. So before him,
it was all just speculation or denied. Pretty
much. Debated even within law enforcement. Then
in 1964, facing his own troubles, the Department
of Justice actually encouraged him to write it
all down. His life story. He wrote it himself.
He did. Apparently it was this massive manuscript,
like 300 ,000 words. For an organization built
entirely on secrecy, this was earth shattering.
Just the act itself. Okay, hold on. So a guy
deep inside this super secret world just decides,
yep, I'm writing a book. The risk must have been.
Immense. Astronomical. And getting it published,
not smooth sailing at all. First, you had Bureau
of Prisons rules, standard stuff, you know, inmates
couldn't profit from or publish details about
their crime. It makes sense. But then the Justice
Department itself got nervous. Apparently, some
of Valachi's claims pointed towards, well, potential
corruption. Maybe in the Bureau of Prisons, maybe
the Bureau of Narconics. Sensitive stuff. Oh,
OK. So the government kind of wanted the secrets,
but maybe not all the secrets. That's interesting.
It really is. It created this really complex
legal mess. In the end, Peter Maas, the author,
got this unique deal. He couldn't publish Veloci's
original manuscript word for word. Right. But
he got incredible access. He talked to Veloci,
read the manuscript, got hundreds of pages of
FBI, Narcotics Bureau interrogation notes, other
official files. Wow. Yeah. So the Valachi papers,
the book we have, is Maas basically weaving all
that firsthand info into a narrative. Yeah. A
third person account. And the impact. This wasn't
just some gossipy tell -all, right? It had real
consequences. Huge consequences. Connecting it
to the bigger picture, Valachi's testimony totally
changed the game for law enforcement. How they
understood organized crime, how they fought it.
Because before him. Before him, like we said,
the very idea of a single national crime syndicate,
the Cosa Nostra, was fuzzy. People debated it.
He gave them names, structure, methods, figures
like Capone, Luciano, Costello, Genovese. He
put them in context, showed the brutal reality
behind the names. It put flesh on the bones,
so to speak. Exactly. It was a massive intelligence
breakthrough. So Valachi himself, he wasn't exactly
climbing the corporate ladder before this, right?
What were his roots? No, definitely not. His
early life was pretty much marked by petty crime.
He spent time in places like the New York Catholic
Protectorate. Okay. His first arrests were for
things like, I think there was a silk store robbery.
Yeah. He did time in Sing Sing, too. And when
he got out, well, he slipped right back into
crime. Didn't really find another path. So how
does someone go from that, you know, petty theft
and early jail time to being inside this secret
society? What was the actual getting in part
like? That was his making, his formal initiation.
Salvatore Maranzano brought him in. And Veloci
described the ritual vividly. A gun, a knife
on the table. Seriously? Yeah. And boning a piece
of paper in his hand while swearing this oath
in Italian. Total secrecy. The name itself, Cosa
Nostra, means this thing of ours. This thing
of ours. And the loyalty demanded. It explicitly
came before everything. Family, religion, country,
everything. It was intense, almost theatrical,
really drilling home the seriousness of it all.
Wow. That sounds less like joining a gang and
more like... Yeah, a blood pact, like you said.
So what did this thing of ours actually look
like inside, the structure? Kalachi laid it all
out. It's hierarchical, very structured. You've
got the boss, the capo at the top, ultimate authority.
Right. Below him, the underboss or sub -capo,
second in command. Then lieutenants, they called
them cap regimes, each running a crew of soldiers.
Soldiers, okay. And membership, being a made
man, was strictly for guys of Italian descent,
but their operations. They involved all sorts
of outsiders, people who weren't members but
helped the businesses. So like a very exclusive,
very illegal corporation. Kind of, yeah. With
really clear lines of command, all focused on
crime. And who are the big players Veloci dealt
with? Must have been some serious power struggles.
Oh, definitely. The era he talked about was full
of heavy hitters. Vito Genovese, Charlie Lucky,
Luciano, Frank Costello, Albert Anastasia, Salvatore
Maranzano. Big names. Huge names and huge conflicts.
The Castellammaries War was massive. A bloody
fight between Maranzano and Joe the Boss, Masseria
for control of New York. Falaci was right in
the middle of it. He fought in it. Yeah. And
eventually, both Masseria and Maranzano got killed,
assassinated. which basically paved the way for
Luciano to take over and create a more streamlined
mafia. It wasn't just a turf war. It fundamentally
changed how organized crime operated in the U
.S. Sounds incredibly dangerous, just constant
volatility. What kind of crimes was Valachi himself
doing day to day within this structure? His resume
was pretty varied, actually. He did loft burglaries,
ran numbers, the policy racket up in Harlem.
He mentioned dealing with guys like Dutch Schultz
and Ciro Terranova there. Wow, Schultz. Yeah,
loan sharking, too Shylocking, they called it.
He even had a short stint dabbling in horse racing
with a horse named Knight's Duchess, I think.
Horse racing, even mobsters like a flutter, huh?
Apparently so. But yeah, it shows how wide their
net was cast, always looking for ways to make
illicit money. But it wasn't all about making
money, was it? There's the violence, the really
dark side. Absolutely central. Violence was just
part of the business. The Cosa Nostra used contracts,
basically orders to kill someone. Just like in
the movies. Pretty much. Veloci gave chilling
details about contracts he was involved in killing
guys like Little Apples, Reggioni, and Giannini.
He described the planning, how they did it, and
how the organization always tried to keep its
hands clean, you know, distance itself from the
actual act. Calculated. Called. Very. Almost
businesslike. Which is maybe the most disturbing
part. Yeah. Making life or death decisions like
they're closing a deal. And what held it all
together? What were the rules inside this violent
world? Well, there was a strict code. Respect
was huge. How you interacted with other members,
other families. But the absolute number one rule,
omerta, the code of silence. Don't talk, ever.
Never. Breaking that oath meant death, no question.
That whole commitment to secrecy is what let
them operate in the shadows for so long. It shows
you the power of silence, right, when everyone
sticks to it. But Valachi did break it. He shattered
it. What happened? What finally made him talk?
It started to unravel with Vito Genovese. Genovese
was in prison in Atlanta on drug charges, and
he got paranoid, really paranoid. About Valachi?
Yeah. He somehow got it in his head that Valachi
was talking to the feds, that Valachi was an
informant. So he marked him for death. Oh, wow.
Inside prison? Inside prison. Veloci said the
atmosphere was terrifying. He was constantly
scared, being poisoned, attacked, living on a
knife edge. I can't even imagine. And this fear
led to this tragic mistake. He saw another inmate,
Joseph DiPalermo, and thought he was the hitman
Genevieve sent. So Veloci attacked and killed
him first. But it wasn't the guy. No, just another
inmate. A horrible, irreversible mistake born
out of sheer terror. And that led him to cooperate.
That was the final push. He's facing murder charges
in prison, likely the death penalty. He'd been
living in fear for ages because of Genovese's
paranoia. So he made a deal. Spill the secrets
of the Cosa Nostra. Maybe save his own life.
Desperation. Self -preservation kicking in above
everything else. Exactly. Even above that blood
oath he took. It's grim irony, isn't it? A life
built on secrets, finally exposed because of
fear and mistaken identity. Yeah. Really grim.
So looking back at his testimony, what were the
biggest takeaways? Well, number one, he confirmed
it. The Cosa Nostra existed. That was huge. Then
he detailed the whole structure, the hierarchy
we talked about. Right. The boss under boss.
Yeah. He exposed how deep their tentacles went
into all sorts of crime gambling, loan sharking,
you name it. And he showed the brutal reality
of the internal power struggles, the violence,
and of course, that ironclad code of silence.
And the book itself, the Valachi paper, its legacy.
Oh, profound. It massively changed public understanding.
It gave law enforcement incredible intelligence,
a real roadmap, boosting their fight against
the mafia significantly. Even now, the insights
from Valachi from Moss's book, they're still
relevant for understanding how these kinds of
organized groups work. So Valachi really did
pull back the curtain, changed everything. It
kind of leaves you thinking, though. Yeah. Considering
the power he described, the absolute secrecy,
the swift and brutal consequences for breaking
rules. What does his story really tell us about
the kinds of hidden power structures, the hidden
codes that can exist just bubbling under the
surface of society even today? That is the big
question, isn't it? It forces you to look beyond
the gangster stuff and think about secrecy, power,
loyalty. How those dynamics play out everywhere,
maybe in less violent ways, but still shaping
things. Definitely food for thought. Well, thanks
for digging deep into this with us today. What
part of Valachi's story stood out most to you?
Was it the initiation, the paranoia? Let us know
in the comments. Always curious to hear your
take. Yeah, definitely share your thoughts. And
if you found this journey into a hidden world
as fascinating as we did, please hit that like
button, share it around. We really appreciate
it. Helps us keep bringing you these deep dives.
Exactly. We'll catch you on the next one.