The History of Organized Crime Michael Vista
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- Society & Culture
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Podcast by Michael Vista
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031 - Singing Sam, the Combine and the Funnel
Detroit entered Prohibition on a war footing, however, it wasn't to last too long. Major changes are afoot, as business minded gangsters find a shaky, but peaceful footing. Plus we explore the biggest non-American liquor supplier that was to last throughout the entire experiment, that was handled by the Volstead Act.
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030 - Who's the Boss
1920 New York City is on the brink of a shift in power, as the former Boss of Bosses Giuseppe Morello is released from prison. The current Boss, Salvatore D'Aquila is looking to maintain his hold of the title, but some don't want him to have it and younger men are rising through the ranks in reputation, cunning or just plain luck.
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029-Prohibition: Products, Provinces, Paisans and Partitions
As Prohibition begins we take a look at how breweries stayed in business. We'll also visit the main territories throughout the United States. from New Orleans to Detroit, From New York to Kansas City. Some are peaceful, some divided and some are just plain war zones.
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028 - O' Bratva Where Art Thou?
A massive Empire is carved from Eastern Europe to the Pacific, but is so large and unwieldy it cannot quite advance. From this Empire the many forces of Socialism take hold, creating a slave labor force which results in an underground gang organizing in the very prisons controlled by the state.
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027 - Unlucky Hand: The Yakuza
After the unification of Japan, under the Tokugawa Shogun, two groups of low tier society become the seeds planted for the Yakuza. They have a long journey before them, but the inspiration of one man, leads another who lives in the area between the political and the criminal worlds. By doing so, he accidently finds one of the worlds most dangerous organized crime syndicates, who are possibly more powerful than the modern day Mafia.
Customer Reviews
Great!
I really like this one
Oof.
I’m abandoning this podcast on the fifth episode, as it’s the fourth consecutive episode with no Mafia content and there are plenty of other Mafia podcasts. Beyond that glaring issue, it’s often tone deaf with regard to other groups, and the host is rather grating and cringe worthy, add to that abrupt cuts to punchy, corny modern movie quotes (“this whole court room is out of order!”) amidst all the Founding Fathers history etc. this guy forced me to listen to while dangling Mafia content ahead. Another reviewer pointed out anti Semitism, which I must have either missed or not had the pleasure of reaching, but I noticed its insensitivities with women, LGBTQ, sex workers, and how about a random, sarcastic “sorry NAACP.” Yikes.
Wildly inaccurate, snidely anti-Catholic, and subtly racist
Did I mention it was also boring?