Original subtitles

of organized crime in America.

The story focuses on three leading characters who are from immigrant

families. It in no way reflects on the many positive contributions ethnic

groups have made to our society.

What you are about to see deals with aspects of violent crime.

Parental discretion is advised.

Tonight, the dramatic story that spans seven decades begins.

The Gangster Chronicles. It was the Roaring Twenties.

A time when the country went dry and three young men made their move.

I'm in business.

I got the best merchandise.

That's the sum of mouth you got, kid.

I guess the firm's in business.

Charlie Lucky Luciano, Benny Bugsy Siegel, and Michael Lasker.

childhood friends who knew how to play the game and make it work.

We're going to be in every business there is, and nothing hurts us, Charlie.

Not as long as we keep using our heads.

They had guts.

They had style.

They formed an underworld syndicate breeding power and romance.

I don't mind being your part-time mistress, Charlie.

What I don't like is being your doorman.

It's the rules of the game, baby.

Part-time mistress, you get yourself a part-time lover.

Michael and Ruth Lasker, I think you're married.

Their fortunes grew, and so did the pressure. Next time we meet, Lushano,

you my friend or you my enemy.

Just keep with your friends. No fighting.

Just make money.

It's a war, Charlie.

Everybody takes care of himself.

And it was always the innocent that got hurt.

I know who you are.

That's enough, Ruth.

Were you going to shoot me, Michael?

They were pitted against themselves, their bonds of friendship, the target of

jealous rivals.

Chung's going to leave us hanging by our thumbs.

Your associates, Lasker and Bogsy Siegel, get rid of them. We'd kill for

each other.

This is their story, a lifetime of success and anguish. And now,

The Gangster Chronicles.

This is an American story.

It begins on the Lower East Side of New York, people by immigrants from Southern

and Central Europe.

They came to this place searching for freedom and opportunity.

What they found here was hard, often cruel, sometimes corrupt and unjust.

Still, most would pour their labor into their adopted land, giving it more than

they took.

Others would burst from these surging blocks of poverty as gunmen and

gangsters. A few would become the leaders of a vast and violent criminal

conspiracy.

This is the story of three men who created the secret American empire we

call organized crime.

Discusere. Pono.

Esquisito.

Hey, that's ours.

Come on.

Hey, take it easy.

We split, okay?

That's an Italian.

He don't understand.

He understands.

I'll take that knife and shove it in his ears.

Make friends, Benny. Everybody understands friends.

Split.

You? Benny?

Michael?

You?

Michael?

Cops, you're dead, cops!

Benny!

Just a dead walk.

Take a look around.

Why should I? He helped us, didn't he?

Yours.

Friends.

Ben Siegel.

Michael. Michael Lasker.

Charlie Luciano.

Take it.

Friends.

Friends.

You see, Benny? You see?

Everybody understands friends.

Thank you.

What is that?

Oh!

That's what I love.

Luciano. What I... You got a good heart, Charlie.

You tell your mama and papa they got a good son.

Wait.

That's for you. From Mr. Goodman.

No? Oh, you want to see Schubert?

That's why you come.

Go, play.

Be a boy.

I'm closed.

I'm closed.

What's so important?

Please, a curse.

I'm sorry, I don't know you.

Sorry. My name is Valentin. I come from Mr. Sayeta.

I don't know any Sayeta.

Lupo. You know Lupo the Wolf.

I'm sorry.

I have my voice.

Please, Mr. Goodman.

It's not for me.

It's for Mr.

Sayet. It's for Lobo. His respect.

My business is gone.

It's too much. I told the other men.

Every week's been too much.

And too much.

But my wife is sick.

I have no money.

We got money.

We got money for Lopo.

Maybe next week.

Sure. Maybe next week.

Hey! Where the devil do you think you're going? Get down from there! Now!

What are you doing here?

Mr. Goodman. What?

Mr. Goodman.

Hey!

Hey!

You stay here.

Capisce? Right here.

Have a tour, eh?

It's too bad I didn't talk to you.

Venica.

Oh, Bruno Crusoe.

Hachi. Cavalli.

De Lucha.

Santucci.

Santoro.

Gavarini.

Vettieri.

Avelino.

Serafina. And your brother. You too, you.

That's all.

No more work.

Hey.

What about me?

What's wrong with me?

Your son got a big mouth.

No work today.

Got time to teach him a lesson.

Okay.

Mr. Gooderman, okay.

The school, eh?

Go.

Go to the school.

You're stupid.

You'll never learn.

You know what stupid means.

Stupid-o, is that Italian enough for you?

You don't even know what country you're in.

Get out.

Take your pencil box.

Get your box or you'll be sorry.

1,198 lives were lost when Germany torpedoed the great ocean liner

Lusitania in 1915.

This infamy would turn Americans towards joining the World War, which was

destroying the old order in Europe, despite President Wilson's dream of

keeping America's sons from that bloodbath. But Michael, Ben, and Charlie

had other thoughts in 1915.

Charlie, come in.

I was setting up another load.

Another load.

It's time for something else, Charlie.

You could make a salesman. You could learn production.

I like the streets. I don't mind deliveries.

I mind.

Come to dinner Friday night. We'll talk.

We'll play a little.

I'll tell you, Mr. Goodman, my nose is still sore from last time.

You eat with the boss, you'll learn to play pinocchio. You get beat, you get it

in the nose.

But one of these days I'm going to win, and then it's going to be your nose.

By the time you win, sonny boy, you'll be a rich man.

Then we'll play for money.

Go, make your deliveries.

It's getting better out there. That fat hoodlum, that Joe Masseria, the one who

works for Sayeta.

I hear the police finally got him.

I still believe in the police, Mr. Goodman.

Friday night.

I'm late.

Big shot.

Sit down, Benny. I thought we were going to eat. Sit down.

I just work here.

We'll go to eat when the boss says they should eat.

Okay. You're getting out of the streets? I don't like your friends, this Lasker

and Lachiano.

Oh, boy, they got jobs.

Don't give me jobs.

What do you do at night?

What are you carrying on at night?

Girls, you know, we talk to girls.

Where do you talk?

In a busted warehouse with a crowbar?

We got a customer.

Wait.

What can I do for you?

A suit, please.

Excuse me? A suit.

You have to speak up. I can't hear you. I need a suit.

Good. What size?

I don't know. Maybe 40. Say that again. I don't hear so good. 40!

40. Take this off.

These are all 40. 40.

Here we are.

The very best merchandise.

The very highest quality.

The very finest.

Mr. Lentz, how much for an XK-92?

XK-92, that's $31.

That'll be $21.

I like it.

He likes it.

No more street.

No more hoodlum friends.

Cool, man. Cool.

A good-looking boy like you, you can be anything you want.

But honest and decent.

Maybe I ain't no scholar, but honest and decent, I can teach.

Sure, Pa, you bet. You teach me all about it.

Do what?

You work tonight?

Mr. Wallace, I'd like to come in tomorrow morning if I could. I got some

plans tonight.

Bookkeeping?

I like to improve myself.

You got good hands.

I like numbers, too.

Numbers?

Yeah, all kind of numbers.

New shooter coming out.

Come on, come on.

Let's go.

Come on, Ted.

64 to point, 2 to 1. 2 to 1.

Get over there.

Stay there.

Leave the money.

Michael Lasker. Yeah, Sergeant.

Common gambling's against the law.

Sergeant. We're all friends here.

Why don't you try your luck?

I'd break the law myself.

Give me the dice.

Try the heartache.

Make two fours, ten to one on a dollar.

I'm a poor man, young Michael. How would I have a dollar to gamble away?

I trust you.

Pay the gentleman.

Go on, pay him.

Game's over for this night.

Michael!

Should this game move from place to place?

You'll be sure and keep me informed?

Yeah, sure.

That dumb Mick really made too force.

Yeah, sure. What do you think?

Of course he made too force.

You keep it.

You bought it.

Danny. What?

What?

Don't catch a cold.

I made a dollar.

You want to play? You got to pay.

I want your investment back or something.

I'll tell it in private.

You know, Charlie, I got a lot of spec hats.

Somebody was asking Mr. Goodman.

I deliver a lot of hats.

Hey.

Hey, bud. I mean, hey, you guys here.

Somebody whacked Sergeant Reardon in the alley last night.

Too bad for Sergeant Reardon.

You had a complaint a little before the war.

Charlie.

I could never hold out on you.

Not you.

Not you, Mike.

I got it, so tell me what's that.

Him? Him.

Him. You. Yeah, me. What? It's our money, ain't it?

You bounce cops in an alley, you're as crazy as a bed bug, Benny.

I don't even know you.

I don't even know you. I don't even know you.

What? What?

What? What? What? You're bugging me. You're bugging me. I'm bugging you. I'm

bugging you. Okay. Bug you secretly, all right?

Mm-hmm.

Go on.

Let me start.

Charlie.

Have you cleaned out the basement storeroom lately?

Does Mr. Goodman want to clean?

I think it would be a real good idea.

Okay, maybe I will.

Don't you like me, Charlie?

I don't like this place.

You gonna take me to a nice hotel?

Maybe I will, Chris.

Maybe I'll surprise you.

In the meantime... You really are crazy.

Because I like you so much?

You like everybody.

What do you want, Charlie?

What do you want more than anything?

Yes.

You want out?

You want money?

Money's the same as out.

And I know what I've got.

I bet I could make money at it, too. So could you.

What are you talking about?

Well, I know some other girls.

And we could get a place uptown, right out of the neighborhood.

And you're so strong.

You could find us the right men.

Men with money.

And you'd protect us.

Yeah, sure, I could do all that.

Charlie, the protector.

Luciana, the bitch.

Thanks for the compliment. You wanted my parents.

Why don't you try your luck with that slob, Marcelino?

I forgot.

He got arrested.

Why don't you try Siantha?

Maybe you could work one of his cribs.

You want to go peddles yourself, have a good time.

Whatever I am, whatever I'm going to be, I don't deal in women.

What do you deal in, Charlie?

Hats?

Come on, what do you put in a half-oxen?

Because I don't want you to hurt me.

And I'm going to forget what you just said.

And you forget, too. You understand me?

How much do I owe you for the visit?

If you paid for it, Charlie, I couldn't begin to afford it.

But no hard feelings.

No hard feelings.

he's running? Huh?

You could work here, close to your mother.

I'll teach you how to operate a sewing machine.

Want some tea?

I'll make you some eggs. How about some eggs?

Your friend Benny, he brought me some milk.

He did, huh?

He's a nice boy.

Sure he's nice. He brought you the milk, didn't he?

You know, there's been plenty of milk.

You need enough eggs, you're going to get better. It's a scientific fact.

The two best doctors in the world are a cow and a chicken.

I'm missing those Cossack pogroms in good old Poland.

Yeah.

You know where you're going?

To the country.

One of them farmhouses in the Catskills, yeah.

Sit on the front porch for weeks and do nothing but watch the sun sets.

Count the trees.

They feed you four times a day.

Maybe five.

The food is fresh.

Everything's good for you.

I'll just take you away.

Nobody gives anybody anything, Ma. Not in Poland, not in America.

Maybe we shouldn't have brought you here.

Ma, America is the best place.

It's the biggest machine that there is.

And I'm just learning how so many parts go together.

It may be a killed part, but it's not going to kill me, and it doesn't have to

kill you either.

We don't have to be poor. I'll prove that to you.

You'll see.

When you're sitting in the country.

You'll see.

Someday.

Lupo the Wolf's shooter, Joe Masseria, was now the strongman of the Italian

ghetto.

Now he wanted to be boss of these streets, Charlie Luciano's streets.

Hey, Luciano.

Everything will go with you, all right?

Fine, fine.

I heard you had some trouble.

Police. Oh, no trouble.

The police, they stick their nose in the wrong place. I put them back in the

right place.

What are they going to do to me, eh?

Sure. Good luck.

Thank you.

You can see your face in it already.

What's the matter? Where's my smile?

You come home for lunch?

No,

I don't come home for lunch.

I take you both out to lunch. We'll go to a nice restaurant.

You are so rich, all of a sudden.

Where's the funeral? Somebody die?

Just stand over there, Charlie.

Hey, who are these guys?

Over there.

Name's Palucci, federal agent.

What are they doing here?

They ask about you, Salvatore.

You won't mind if we look at your hats.

No, they're not my hats. They're Mr. Goodman's hats. I just deliver them.

Hey, what's going on here?

What else do you deliver?

Salvatore Luciano, you're under arrest for violation of the Harrison Act.

Perché? No, please. Mama, mama. No, no, please.

Che disgrazia.

All right.

Where's this guy Luciano?

There.

Hey, Luciano!

Let's go.

Forget it. Must be for Frank.

I don't get visitors.

It doesn't say Costello. It says you.

Maybe it's your old man, Charlie.

I told you, give him a chance.

He waited this long.

He can wait a little longer.

He can't. I can't. You're coming or not?

He coming.

She sends her love.

He doesn't want her to come here.

Drugs, Charlie.

How did it get to be drugs?

I was delivering the hat. Somebody asked me to deliver something else.

It's that Harrison Act.

All of a sudden, it's a crime.

A couple of years ago, they were selling that stuff right over the counter.

You learned that lesson?

Not about the drugs.

Yeah, there's laws and there's laws, Mr. Goodman.

Some of the cops he turned their backs on.

The drugs.

I learned a lesson.

The police.

How did they know?

Maybe a girl, I don't know. Maybe Joe Massaria.

Massaria?

Yeah, he was arrested and all of a sudden he wasn't arrested no more.

Maybe he traded me off.

Listen, sonny boy.

I learned a few things in my time.

You go for revenge, you better dig two graves.

One for your enemy, one for yourself.

They teach you that in the hat business?

When you come out, Charlie, you'll come back to me.

You'll make a salesman.

You'll count on a job.

You'll come to dinner, a little pinnacle.

You'll get it in the note.

Thanks for thinking about me. I appreciate it. But I got other plans.

Hmm?

What plans?

This is the land of opportunity.

That's why my folks came here from Sicily. You know, to pick up the gold

off the streets.

Now, I ain't looking to fight nobody.

I just want my opportunity.

Just like the cops.

and the politicians, and the businessmen with their sweatshops, and everybody

else who isn't standing around waiting for a gold brick to fall on.

Crooks, Charlie.

I eat three meals a day. I made a business.

Am I a crook?

No, you work hard, Mr. Goodman.

And look what they did to you.

You want to be like them?

Is that what you want?

No, I'll never be like them.

I know disrespect, but I'm not like you either.

After they burned you that time, did you pay them off?

Say yes, people.

That was a long time ago, Charlie.

And you're still paying them?

Who's going to protect me?

by him. Just give me a few years.

There's a girl that works for you, uh, Crick Brennan. Oh, yeah, the pretty one.

Is she still there?

No, she went away.

A man.

They say she went to Chicago.

Thanks for coming, Mr. Goodman.

Oh, I forgot to ask, how's business?

They say they'll be in the ball in France any day now.

I'll make heads.

They'll be taking young men.

No, they won't be taking me.

I'm a criminal.

Ask the police. They don't lie to you.

1920. The guns of World War I were silent, and the young men who survived

it returned to the normalcy promised by President-elect Warren Harding. But

peace did not bring prosperity, and unemployment would reach record numbers.

Life would not be easy for a young man with a prison record. But Charlie

Luciano celebrated his release with a last legal drink with his friend Michael

Lasker.

I believe, Mikey, I believe this whole damn country is going to jail.

Either that, or a lot of people are going to get very rich selling bootleg

booze.

I hear Arnold Rothstein's got warehouses full of them.

Arnold Rothstein may be a big brain, but he's not the only one who's got a

warehouse.

I'm a businessman now, Charlie.

No more warehouses at 2 in the morning.

Mike, I'm talking about broad daylight.

As legal as a church, and with the right party.

Who's really got all of the liquor down?

The government.

The government of the United States.

They made all of this, Michael. They made it just for you and for me.

Can we serve you folks something?

Not at these prices, thank you. Thanks all the same.

Listen, come back anytime, boy.

Be my guest.

Make sure you bring the cash, hmm?

Let's go get some ice cream. Aw, Charlie.

Charlie, don't you like ice cream? Yeah, I like ice cream.

Well, why don't we have to get some ice cream?

Charlie Luciano, Michael Lasker, and Ben Siegel were hardened criminals.

They lived in a violent world.

Like the others in that world, they lived by the gun and by a cruelty that

was someday to destroy them.