Original subtitles

It is said that people in Louisiana don't

tolerate corruption, they demand it.

New Orleans was the first American city

that the Sicilian mafia began to inhabit.

And I think anybody,

anybody who has the connections and the money,

can have somebody hurt.

♪ Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh

♪ Oh-oh-oh-oh

♪ Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh

Within the American Italian mafia families,

the individual with the most power,

influence, and wealth is known as "The Boss."

Some bosses rule their dynasties

from behind the scenes in the shadows,

always maintaining a low profile.

Others are highly visible,

larger than life characters with national reputations.

Such was a long time supreme ruler

of the mafia of New Orleans, Carlos Marcello.

After centuries of changing owners,

the Louisiana purchased by Thomas Jefferson

finally placed the city of New Orleans under US control.

In the 1800s it became a thriving city,

and the most attractive American destination

for Italian immigrants.

It's very unique in that it's 90% Sicilian.

Out of every thousand 900 people are from Sicily,

and it was the first group of immigrants in this country.

Now contrary to what a lot of people think.

And in the 1850s

there were more Italians here than in New York.

And it was a one-two punch for about 30 years,

and then New York finally overwhelmed us.

But for the longest time,

New Orleans was the main headquarters

for the Italian immigration.

The migration to America by Sicilians

was precipitated by the unification of Italy in 1860.

This unification plunged Sicily

into an economic depression,

and the poverty stricken Sicilians fled to North Africa,

Northern Italy, and the United States.

It starts back with Garibaldi

when he went there in 1860,

and captured Sicily and then the southern part,

and turned it over to King Victor Emanuel,

to become the initial impact of united the nations.

Italy became a country for the first time in 1870,

since the Roman days.

And they were promised,

the southern part of Italy was promised

all kind of things.

And when that those promises weren't fulfilled,

well, they were looking for opportunities elsewhere.

And the mass immigration started, and they took off.

The migrating Sicilians were drawn to New Orleans

because of its temperate weather,

and the opportunities afforded them there,

which were different than what New York had to offer.

In New York, they went there

and they started digging tunnels,

or they went to work in factories.

That was not the case here.

Even in New Orleans,

they didn't have to live in an eighth story of a

tenement building without hot, or even water.

Forget hot water.

It was a different life.

It was closer to the European life.

So when they arrived, they almost fit right in.

It was almost like being home.

It was a natural transfer.

Another natural transfer to New Orleans,

albeit a less desirable one,

was a small but notorious segment

of the Sicilian population.

The secret criminal organization known as a mafia,

had been a part of Sicily for years,

first established as a reaction

to oppressive rulers in Italy.

John H. Davis, author of "Mafia Kingfish," explains why.

New Orleans was the first American city

that the Sicilian mafia began to inhabit.

And long before New York,

or Chicago, or any other.

They were attracted to New Orleans,

and to the state of Louisiana

because it resembled somewhat Sicily.

And so they came here and droves.

And by the turn of the century,

you're talking about by by 1900,

there were about 100 mafiosi in New Orleans.

The permissive attitudes in New Orleans

made the city a haven for vice and corruption.

The corruption in the New Orleans area is

probably going back a hundred years,

to late 1890s that I would know about.

In the past, law enforcement has closed a blind eye to it.

Not saying the police were corrupt,

but things were tolerated in the French Quarter

that would not be tolerated anywhere else in the country.

When the Sicilian immigrants arrived in New Orleans,

many became laborers on the docks and on plantations.

It was in these very areas that the mafia began to dominate.

By the early 1870s,

the mafia had made inroads in controlling

the waterfront and markets,

and eventually the hauling of freight in the ports.

Their means of gaining this control

was through their standard way, violence.

Between 1869 and 1889,

the New Orleans police attributed

over a hundred murders to the infamous Sicilian Mafia.

The tactic of gaining control through violence,

which had worked so well in Sicily,

became standard procedure in Louisiana as well.

The violence in New Orleans mafia

controlled docks and markets erupted

as rival fought for dominance.

In the ongoing confrontation,

the supposedly corrupt Chief of Police,

David Hennessy, was assassinated,

presumably by members of the warring families.

Enraged citizens fueled by anti-Italian sentiment,

took revenge and lynched several Italian suspects

in custody in the local jail.

This resulted in protests by outraged Italians,

both in the US and Italy.

While the local press rejoice at

the city's mafia had being wiped out, they were wrong.

After a couple of years, the gangsters regrouped,

and by the early 1920s,

one family had firmly established

its dominance in New Orleans.

It would eventually bear the name

of illiterate Italian immigrant,

who became one of America's most powerful mafia bosses.

Carlos Marcello's parents immigrated

to North Africa where Carlos was born in 1910.

Carlos's father, Joseph Marcello went on to Louisiana.

And when Carlos was eight months old,

he and his mother rejoined Joseph

in what would be their new homeland.

As their small family expanded,

the Marcello's took to farming

a plot of land outside New Orleans.

When Carlos was old enough,

he was given the job of transporting

the produce his family grew,

to the markets in the city.

Coming in daily contact with the rough world

of the Sicilian dominated markets,

young Marcello got his first exposure to the mafia.

It was then he realized the farming life

was not going to be his calling.

Well, Carlos Marcello was an extraordinarily

capable and intelligent young man,

who left his family's farm in the bayous,

and started committing crimes in the city of New Orleans.

Marcello's early criminal career

consisted mostly of small time theft.

A botched back job eventually landed Carlos behind bars

with a nine to 12 year prison sentence.

At the time of his conviction,

he was just 20 years old.

Through a mafia connection,

Marcello's father was able

to gain a pardon for his son

from Louisiana's Governor O.K. Allen.

Young Carlos learned first-hand,

the benefits of having friends in high places,

and the extent to which mafia influence could reach.

By 1930, there were mafiosi

at every level of government in New Orleans.

After his abbreviated prison term,

Carlos returned to the city and opened a bar

called The Brown Bomber,

named after the fighter, Joe Lewis.

Soon he branched out and began distributing jukeboxes

and pinball machines in restaurants

around Algiers and Gretna.

Bar owners who declined doing business

with Marcello or his brothers,

who soon persuaded to change their minds.

So have you thought about our offer?

Yeah, but like I told you,

I already have a jukebox.

Not one of ours.

You don't have one of our machines,

you got a piece of junk.

Look, every bar and in parish is putting in our machines.

I'm sure you don't want to be

the only one left with a piece of junk.

Could be bad for business.

Very bad.

I think it was fear.

I don't know how realistic that fear was,

or how realistic his ability to carry it out,

but obviously there were many people who thought he could.

And you know, I think anybody,

anybody who has the connections and the money

can have somebody hurt if they want that done.

Marcello's reputation reached

New York Mafia Boss, Frank Costello.

Under attack by officials up North,

Costello was planning to move his slot machines

to the New Orleans area.

You got a start into the mafia basically,

after Costello brought down all the slot machines.

And he then successfully placed them

in all the bars and restaurants,

and began getting rich because

he was getting a cut, you know,

from all the, from every slot machine that he installed.

He would split it with Costello.

The fact that gambling was illegal

in Louisiana didn't deter anyone.

Louisiana Senator, Huey Long,

agreeing to a 10% cut of the take,

made sure the police looked the other way.

Marcello wielded his power with an iron hand.

He allegedly took people to his property on the bayou

and had them disposed of.

And he had a bathtub in back of the property,

and he'd fill it with lye.

And the unfortunate victim would be,

would be decomposed in the bathtub full of lye,

and then the tub would be poured into the bayou.

Not everyone buys the violent reputation.

As far as I knew,

Marcello did not have a reputation for violence.

There were allegations years ago

that he might have been involved in

a gang lands style hit on the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

That was nothing but rumor.

It never went beyond rumor.

In my opinion, he never had to resort

to that type of strong arm techniques.

New York boss, Frank Costello

was so pleased with how Marcello

ran the slot machine business in New Orleans,

that when he opened a Las Vegas style

gambling house in Jefferson Parish,

Carlos was counted in as a 12.5% partner.

By the time he was 37 years old,

Marcello had amassed a small fortune

from his illegal dealings.

In 1947, he became the boss of the

entire New Orleans Mafia.

He also became one of the wealthiest men in Louisiana,

with dozens of illegal and legitimate enterprises.

Although only five feet, two inches tall,

and nicknamed "The Little Man,"

Marcello, became the biggest leader

in the New Orleans Mafia,

and one of Louisiana's wealthiest men.

His total worth was estimated at $450 million.

Drugs. That was, that was his big staple.

Heroin that would come in from Sicily

into the Port of New Orleans,

and Carlos would distribute it in Texas,

Louisiana, and Mississippi, Alabama,

the whole southern group of states.

Marcello's territory extended

from the Mississippi River Delta

throughout much of the Gulf States.

He became a master paying off anyone necessary

to ensure his operations ran smoothly.

He was able to keep his activities

relatively free of legal interference,

until concerned citizens invited

a former FBI agent to investigate

the New Orleans Police Department.

Aaron Cohen began to expose a goings on in Louisiana,

which eventually came to the attention of Robert Kennedy,

and a Senate committee investigating corruption.

Since his rise to the top

of the New Orleans Mafia in 1947,

Carlos Marcello's wealth and power continued to grow.

Although the federal government repeatedly tried

to put Marcello out of business,

he seemed impossible to convict.

For years, he and his mafia family

seemed to be able to operate with virtual impunity.

That began to change to change, however,

with a vigorous anti racketeering

and corruption efforts of individuals

such as state police, superintendent Francis Bredenberg

and former FBI, agent Aaron Cohen.

Brought to New Orleans in 1953

to investigate corruption in the police department,

Cohen eventually headed up the

privately funded Metropolitan Crime Commission.

Bredenberg was appointed in 1952

as superintendent of state police,

which he says also had a long history of corruption.

Huey Long had them originally, he organized it in 1935,

and he used it like his little private army.

But they were all politicians,

people that the politicians asked him to hire,

and that's the way they did it.

So I cut that out right away.

And I fired a few.

I wished I had fired more.

Because these guys were so used to taking kickbacks.

And I had a terrible time with it.

Now, age 85 Bredenberg recalls numerous incidents

of police corruption when he was in office.

I raided a place called The Four Leaf Clover Club.

I raided it seven times.

And the fourth time I raided it

'cause I saw these young girls in there,

and we'd booked these prostitutes with the sheriff's office,

but they would never try them.

The sheriff was half owner of the house of prostitution.

We finally put the owner,

the man who was half owner of it,

with him in jail for 10 years,

on a mandatory narcotics law that I had passed,

that liberal judges canceled,

annulled two years later.

The extent of Carlos Marcello's

criminal activities went well beyond

the mere control of police.

Former federal prosecutor,

Eades Hogue saw how far that influence went.

He controlled the traditional rackets along the,

the Southern Gulf Coast, primarily in Louisiana,

to some degree in Mississippi.

There were allegations that he had influence even in Texas.

And by traditional rackets,

rackets like organized prostitution,

illegal gambling, loan sharking and things of that nature.

He was involved in so many businesses,

in gambling, and running restaurants, in oil.

He ran a vast conglomerate,

maybe of 50 different businesses all under his umbrella.

In his investigations,

Aaron Cohen learned that all

trails led to the Marcello organization.

Marcello seemed to have both the New Orleans

and Jefferson Parish police departments

and municipal administrations in his pocket.

Cohen also discovered that Marcello could be connected

to at least three murders,

none of which Marcello was ever charged with.

In 1959, Cohen was able to bring his findings

to the attention of the McClellan Committee

and its Chief Counsel, Robert Kennedy.

The committee was already waging war

against the mafia in New York and Chicago.

The top mobsters of Louisiana maintain contact with,

and join in common objectives with

their counterparts elsewhere.

Freely, and expansively, they move around the country

and are visited in turn.

Four years, unlike their mafia predecessors,

the Marcello mob has found little need

to fight against officials charged

with exercising police powers.

The Carlos Marcellos of today

do not battle the long arm of the law,

for they find that the last longer,

grow richer, and look more respectable

by linking arms with willing officers of the law.

Through Robert Kennedy's efforts

in the Justice Department,

our organized crime and racketeering section

really was established.

That was a Robert Kennedy brainchild,

to concentrate a group of prosecutors

who were specially trained

to engage in traditional organized crime investigations.

Marcello and other mobsters

who appeared before the committee,

refused to acknowledge the existence of the mafia.

Even FBI Director, Jay Edgar Hoover seemed to concur.

Hoover had long maintained that the mafia was a myth.

In 1957, however,

60 mafia leaders were rounded up

at a house in upstate New York.

This seemed to confirm once and for all,

the existence of a national crime syndicate.

Absent from this meeting though was Carlos Marcello.

He had such special privileges within the mafia,

that he didn't have to attend any of those big conclaves.

You know, that there was one that an Appalachian,

where the heads of all the families gathered.

That was broken up by the police,

but Marcello wouldn't have to attend those.

Whatever the reason for Marcello's absence,

he was still subpoenaed to appear

before the McClellan committee.

Marcello defiantly pleaded the Fifth Amendment

to 66 questions that Robert Kennedy directed toward him.

His arrogance and contempt for the proceedings

provided even more incentive for

Robert Kennedy to attack the mafia.

Marcello even refused to

answer the question of where he was born.

This very withholding of information

became the weapon that Robert Kennedy

would use to go after Marcello.

Kennedy learned that Marcello had obtained

an illegal Guatemalan birth certificate,

and an entry described him

as a citizen of Guatemala.

Kennedy turned to the one agency

Marcello did not have his hands in,

the Immigration and Naturalization Service.

He ordered the INS to expel Marcello

from the United States without delay.

What exactly is going on here?

On, on April 14th, 1961,

Marcello made a routine check-in with immigration.

He was told to sit down.

The immigration agent then read a letter to Marcello,

To Carlos Marcello,

it has come to the attention of this office,

that your place of birth is listed

as the country of Guatemala.

And as such, you are officially a citizen of that country.

You are here with ordered return

to your country of origin immediately.

What is this all about here?

You are overdue on your Visa.

Why are you doing this to me?

What's happening over here?

Marcello was taken to a waiting car,

and whisked to the airport and flown to Guatemala City.

The legality of the deportation has always been in question.

I reviewed all the INS files on that case.

And let me say this,

I'm not certain at all that

fundamental notions of due process

were followed in connection with that arrest.

He got no hearing,

he got no opportunity to consult counsel,

as I understand it,

his counsel were not able to consult

anybody connected with the Justice Department.

This guy was just swept up, taken in a car,

put on an airplane, and flown outta the country.

Marcello spent two agonizing months in exile.

After making his way through the rugged

central American jungle,

Marcello somehow got back to Louisiana.

How exactly Marcello was able

to re-enter the US is uncertain.

Investigator, Ed Becker believes Marcello used his

connections to sneak back into the country.

New Orleans fishing boats were down there

for the crab and all that, you know,

which they did periodically,

like once a week at least.

What he'd have to do,

make one phone call and says,

"I want to boat here tomorrow at 8:00 PM."

And give it to Joe, and whoever,

you know, somebody he trusted.

And that's it.

And when he couldn't take like an airplane back,

or drive back,

gettin' stopped at the border,

or, you know, driving, and the flight,

he naturally wouldn't do that.

'Cause you remember, there's always guards,

always FBI at the airport.

LA and New Orleans always photographed the mob

when they came off the planes.

The government backed deportation effort

seemed to have backfired.

The fact that he could sneaked back in

made him a even more of a hero

to the mob than he was before he'd got, was deported.

So, well, everybody knew he was

really the Godfather of the United States.

For Marcello, the deportation episode

was something he wasn't going to forget.

His fury toward Kennedy reportedly became an obsession.

Kennedy also was enraged on hearing

that Marcello was able to reenter the country.

He acted quickly,

and had Marcello indicted for illegal entry.

The INS ruled Marcello was an undesirable alien,

and once again, ordered him deported,

a ruling that Marcello's attorneys appealed.

They never stopped trying.

Washington DC never stopped trying to deport Marcello.

We did not get directly involved in that,

other than whatever they asked us to do.

But Washington really never gave up on deporting him.

Marcello never forgot the

harrowing and humiliating experience

of the forced deportation at the hands

of Robert Kennedy.

In the early 1960s,

Carlos Marcello was facing

the severest challenge to his empire yet,

in the form of a newly elected Kennedy administration.

President John F. Kennedy took office,

and appointed his brother Robert,

to the post of Attorney General.

Now with greater power and authority,

Robert Kennedy and the president

continue their campaign to bring down Marcello.

What Marcello needed was for that threat to go away.

On November 22nd, 1963, that's exactly what happened.

President Kennedy was visiting Dallas

as part of a Democratic party campaign tour.

As a presidential motorcade

made its way through Dealey Plaza,

gunshots suddenly rang out.

The president was shot,

and rushed to nearby Parkland Hospital.

Within an hour, John F. Kennedy was pronounced dead.

A short time later,

Dallas Police apprehended a young man

by the name of Lee Harvey Oswald.

Though quickly fingered as a president's assassin,

Oswald denied involvement.

I really don't know what the situation is about.

Nobody has told me anything except that I'm accused

of murdering a policeman.

Before anyone could thoroughly

interrogate Oswald, though,

the Dallas nightclub owner by the name

of Jack Ruby slipped through police barricades.

Amidst the confusion resulting

from the killing of President Kennedy and then Oswald,

numerous conspiracy theories began to emerge.

The list of possible co-conspirators included the Soviets,

who had recently backed down on the Cuban missile crisis.

Cuba, still angry over the Bay of Pigs invasion.

The CIA whom Kennedy had threatened to disband,

supported the slain South Vietnamese President, Diem,

who held the Kennedy administration responsible

for Diem's death, and of course, the mafia,

who had more than their share of gripes with the Kennedys.

The government and the media began taking

a closer look at the alleged assassin.

Oswald often visited New Orleans

where he apparently volunteered in a pro castor organization

called the Fair Play for Cuba Committee.

Oswald was seen passing out pamphlets

for the group on New Orleans Streets.

Oswald's affiliation to this movement

was one thing that led many people

to speculate on Fidel Castro's

involvement in the assassination.

Another theory linked the assassination

to a joint effort between the CIA and mafia,

who were both anti-Castro,

albeit for different reasons.

The CIA viewed Castro's Cuba as a satellite

of the Soviet Union, and a threat to national security.

As for the Mafia, Castro was directly responsible

for shutting down their lucrative Cuban gambling operations.

After the disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion,

both the CIA and the Mafia blamed President Kennedy

for the of the invasion,

and for Castro remaining in power.

Without any concrete evidence to support

any of these various theories,

the controversial Warren Commission

concluded that Oswald acted alone.

Nearly 15 years later, however, in 1979,

the House Assassinations Committee

decided to reopen the investigation.

New evidence surfaced to suggest the possibility

that Oswald shot the president

on behalf of Carlos Marcello.

By the summer of 1962,

Robert Kennedy had tightened his grip on the mafia,

and brought new charges against Marcello.

With two federal indictments,

and a standing deportation order,

Marcello was living each day under a cloud of uncertainty.

No, I did not expect that.

We had had no indication

that anything like this was going to happen.

New information revealed possible links

between Oswald and Marcello.

While in New Orleans,

Oswald lived with his uncle Dutch Murit,

who was affiliated with members

of Marcello's gambling racket.

Oswald was also possibly connected to David Ferry,

who was ironically a member

of a violently anti-Castro Cuban revolutionary front,

an organization heavily financed by Carlos Marcello.

Around the time that Kennedy announced his trip to Dallas,

Carlos Marcello and David Ferry

were planning Marcello's defense in a legal case,

scheduled to go to trial in New Orleans in early November.

In addition to meeting with Marcello

at the Town and Country Motel,

Ferry also allegedly met with Oswald in the French Quarter.

Conspiracy theorists speculated

that Marcello was looking for someone

outside his organization to take care of Kennedy.

And then learned of Dutch Murit's

oddball nephew, Lee Harvey Oswald.

A connection between Oswald's killer Jack Ruby,

and Carlos Marcello was also discovered.

In 1946, a year before Carlos Marcello

assumed power in Louisiana,

the Chicago mob launched a campaign

to take over the rockets in the Dallas area,

and gain control of the Dallas police force.

Assisting in the effort was Jack Ruby.

Ruby stayed on in Dallas,

opening up a nightclub,

and acting as a middleman between the mafia

and the police department.

Jack Ruby swore he'd shot Lee Harvey Oswald

to vindicate the president.

It has been proposed, however,

that Marcello needed someone with access

to the Dallas Police to silence Oswald,

and Ruby was a perfect candidate.

Whether it will be ever definitively determined,

if Marcello or any other mobster had anything to do

with the assassination of John F. Kennedy,

it is fairly safe to say that many

of Carlos Marcello's worst headaches

went away on November 22nd, 1963.

Long before John Gotti became known as a Teflon Don,

the head of the New Orleans mafia was proving

to be virtually immune to government enforcement efforts.

Since the 1930s, Carlos Marcello had managed

to dodge federal probes linking him to organized crime.

When asked by reporters of his

involvement with the rackets,

Marcello had a standard response.

But still, what was your answer to that?

- Absolutely not. - How long ago did-

When asked about his business ventures,

Marcello had a stock answer.

Plan investment in motels.

What's your opinion of all the talk about

still your involvements in the rackets,

and you're being labeled a mafia boss

and a little man of rackets in Louisiana?

Just a lot of lies, and bad statement from Aaron Cohen,

people like that, that's making a living out of it.

In 1966, however,

the allegations became impossible to refute.

Marcello was picked up by New York City police

at a restaurant in Queens,

along with some of the biggest names and organized crime.

Upon his released and arrival to New Orleans,

Marcello found himself besieged by reporters and cameras.

He also placed himself in more legal turmoil

after an encounter with FBI Agent, Patrick Collins.

He returned to New Orleans,

in the airport, he made one big error, a big mistake.

In the airport, he spotted an FBI official,

and the FBI official came up to him

and said, "Hey Carlos,

"we understand you guys got got caught up

"there in Los Stellar restaurant."

Where about Marcello hauled off,

and practically broke the guy, the FBI guy's skull.

Then that landed him in prison for six months.

Marcello and his lawyers had their

own take on the incident.

He positively did not know that

Mr. Pat Collins was an FBI agent.

And the evidence plainly shows

that Mr. Pat Collins was a very belligerent

young man at that particular moment.

And he has quoted Marcello as saying,

"Are you looking for trouble, or do you want trouble?"

Instead of trying to explain himself,

Mr. Pat Collins says,

"I can handle trouble,"

in a manner to show that he wanted to fight.

A judge convicted and sentenced

Marcello to two years.

But as he had in the past,

Marcello used political clout to have

his sentence reduced to a mere six months.

However powerful he was nationally,

Marcello, continually wielded political influence

for personal gain on his own turf.

In an expose about corruption in Louisiana,

"Life Magazine," looked at Marcello's outrageous exercise

of power over state officials.

The article claimed Marcello persuaded

the Louisiana State government to spend taxpayers money

to improve his personal

6400 acre swampland property, Churchill Farms.

If fully dyked and drained,

the property could be worth a reputed

$60 million in prime real estate.

It took four years and over $1 million

to build a levee,

which benefited no one in the entire state

except Carlos Marcello.

Since even before the days

of Louisiana's notorious Senator, Huey Long,

corruption had been an integral part

of the state's political system.

Nobody understands the relationship between

politics and corruption in Louisiana

better than Attorney, John Volz-

Just how far the drug lords would go to get-

who's unwillingness to play along

may have cost him two campaigns for sheriff,

and District Attorney of St. Tammany Parish.

They give us no break at all.

I characterize Louisiana as a place

that is known for corruption.

It's known for corruption.

And why? Because there's so many corrupt

public officials in this state.

Not all of 'em, but a lot of 'em.

Too many of 'em.

And, you know, it's said that

people in Louisiana don't tolerate corruption,

they demand it.

And so they find people who do illegal things,

but who are glib.

They find that funny.

They find it amusing.

It's entertainment. Not all people are like that.

Not all the people.

I'm not, I'm not indicting,

in the general sense of the word,

all the citizens of the state,

'cause there are are some fine people here

that don't wanna see this.

But there are too many,

too many politicians with their hands out.

After formed a committee in 1951,

and the McClellan hearing 10 years later,

Marcello walked away with his empire and reputation intact.

In 1979 though,

Marcello faced a new challenge

when The House Select Committee on Assassinations

reopened the investigation

into President Kennedy's assassination,

based on new evidence and new witnesses.

Ed Becker, a Las Vegas casino investigator

who moved in and out of mafia circles,

was one of those witnesses.

He had occasion to meet with Marcello

in 1962 as part of a business venture.

He was able to gain the mobster's trust by dropping names.

We were drinking, and the, and I said,

"Boy, I tell you, Bobby's sure not happy anymore

"that you got back in the country."

And I said, "Everybody in Las Vegas talking about it."

Which of course stimulated his ego.

And now he's starting to mutter to me

about Bobby Kennedy and the Kennedy family.

And he keeps it up, and he keeps it up,

and now I keep prodding him.

You know, you know, saying,

"Well, he's not gonna be in office that much longer."

I didn't know.

I mean, Kennedy, just what,

been reelected, or, and Bobby was going to,

I guess go on with him.

And this infuriated Carlos just even thinking about it.

And that's when he spat out this Sicilian phrase,

which I had to do by memory.

I mean I don't speak Italian,

so I, you know, whatever.

And, and phonetically I could under, I could grasp it.

I had, I have a good memory.

And so I was able to call an Italian consulate

one time and find out what it meant.

And I found out what it meant.

It meant, you know, you cut off the tail,

the head, and the tail dies.

Well that means instead of

killing the president of the United States,

we would've been assassinating him,

which would've been, you know, the first obvious thought.

I mean that first obvious thought is "Kill Bobby."

In the end, the House Select Committee on Assassinations

came short of indicting him.

Marcello, like so many times before,

had managed to avoid prosecution.

In 1979, however, the wheels of justice

would catch up with Marcello as the FBI launched

an elaborate undercover sting operation called BRILAB,

an acronym for bribery and labor.

The FBI was able to infiltrate Marcello's inner sanctum

through the use of an informer.

One particular fellow that cooperated was a

gentleman by the name of Joe Hauser.

As a result of that,

we began a series

of electronic surveillance activities

involving phone taps on Marcello's office phones.

At one point,

the court authorized a electronic surveillance

by way of a microphone in his office,

here in the New Orleans area.

At one time, as I think I remember correctly,

we even tapped his home phone.

The FBI recruited Hauser,

a notorious swindler who at the time

was facing a 10 count conviction charge

for bribery and racketeering.

- What's in it for me? - In a deal

with the Justice Department,

Hauser would receive a reduced sentence in exchange

for turning government informant.

The strategy was to present Marcello

with an opportunity to assist Hauser

in obtaining state insurance contracts.

And he was presented with an opportunity and he took it.

Not only did he take it,

but Marcello had his own ideas about

how to proceed and who to approach.

We do the whole state if necessary.

in securing these insurance

contracts on stadium employees.

What Marcello didn't know,

was that their conversations were being taped

by a recorder hidden in Hauser's briefcase.

Once those approaches were made,

we were off to the races,

and Marcello became a dominant figure

in directing Hauser and undercover FBI agents

who were masquerading as agents,

who had connections with the

Prudential Life Insurance Company.

In exchange for his influential connections,

Marcello would receive cash,

and a cut in profits from any insurance contracts

he steered to Fidelity Prudential.

The FBI agents, the undercover agents

were introduced to then commissioner of administration,

which is like second to the Governor, Mr. Charles Romer,

who we alleged, and obviously proved,

that he had taken money, I think it was $25,000,

to steer the state's employees insurance company,

insurance business to these particular agents.

And in the process,

the FBI listened to his conversations

for about 19 months.

In addition to the $25,000,

Marcello promised Romer monthly payments

of $43,000 for the life of the contracts.

I think the significance of the case

is not only the prosecution

and conviction of a person who was reputed to be

way up in the, in the organized crime scale in this area,

but also the fact that,

that you could see the tentacles

of organized crime moving into corrupting state officials.

Marcello became concerned.

There was a chance that Romer could lose his position

after the Republican gubernatorial primary.

He decided to hedge his bet on Romer,

and offer a bribe to then

Democratic Lieutenant Governor, James Fitz-Morris.

Marcello believed Fitz could direct

certain contracts his way,

especially if Romer was removed from his position.

Fitz-Morris took the bait,

and accepted Marcello's bribe for $10,000.

Carlos Marcello's reign as

the untouchable godfather of Louisiana,

ended in August of 1980

when a grand jury filed a 70-year-old

on guilty of numerous racketeering charges.

Indicted alongside Marcello, Romer, I. Irving Davidson,

a longtime friend of Marcello's,

and an influential Washington Lobbyist

who had originally introduced Hauser to Marcello.

Vincent Marinello, a lawyer for Marcello.

Davidson and Marinello were acquitted of all charges,

while Romer would be found guilty,

and sentenced to serve a prison term.

On June 1st, 1982,

due to his poor health,

Marcello was taken to the United States Medical Center

for federal prisoners in Springfield, Missouri

to begin serving his sentence.

After Carlos Marcello's conviction,

the family's influence in New Orleans

political circles in the underworld declined.

In 1988, Carlos's brother Sammy Marcello

was indicted for money laundering.

And several Marcello owned restaurants

like The Louisiana fell into bankruptcy.

Carlos Marcel died approximately four or five years ago.

He was succeeded by Anthony Corolla.

Anthony Corolla was involved in gaming, gambling activity,

and they were meeting at a restaurant

in the French Quarter in the city of New Orleans,

and unbeknowing to them,

they were being watched and monitored by the FBI,

and the FBI actually caught them plotting

to takeover worldwide gaming in Louisiana route operators.

One of the people that came from out of town,

was a gentleman by the name Tanfield,

who had connections to the Genovese, and the Gambino family.

FBI Wire taps indicate

the Gambino and Bruno-Scarfo crime families

were laying the groundwork for making

New Orleans a major port of entry for cocaine smuggling.

In the early 90s, the FBI conducted a,

actually a five year investigation that began in 1990,

and ended in the result of the convictions

of 20 LCN members and associates.

The LCN in New Orleans,

we believe is pretty much kind

of looking at an open city right now.

What I mean by open city,

there is not any specifically defined one family

that is concentrating on establishing

itself in criminal activity.

In New Orleans, a history of affiliation

between organized crime and public institutions

seems destined to repeat itself.

I would venture to guess,

there's corruption here.

And yes, there's corruption in America,

and I think there always will be.

But, law enforcement should be vigilant,

and continue to investigate and prosecute corruption.

It's the only tool available to combat it.

It will never eradicate it.

Never, as long as human beings

continue to be human beings.

But it must be done,

because I think it tempers and restrains excesses.

On the other hand,

the government needs to operate within the law.

And, should always be mindful of that.

Despite its checkered past,

the future of New Orleans is looking brighter.

Over the last four years

with the new police chief we do have here,

we've seen things turn around.

The quality of life in New Orleans

has improved tremendously.

Crime has dropped,

the homicide rate has dropped tremendously.

We were averaging 400, 430 murders a year.

It's down probably 40%.

So, across the board,

the quality of life is improved.

By exploiting a political system rife with corruption,

and by wielding fear and bribery like precision instruments,

Marcello was able to amass an empire.

Only through diligence were honest law enforcement,

and political officials finally able

to bring down the godfather of New Orleans and his dynasty.

I'm Robert Stack.

Thanks for joining us.