Original subtitles

Now look, you make it your business to see Mama, huh?

Well, you're a fine one to talk.

Look, I'm not going to argue with you, Pa.

Only you get around to see Mama, or else I'm going to...

You're going to what?

Yeah, you're going to what?

Make a move and you get Mama's sidewalk all sticky.

What do you want?

I don't want nothing.

Legs, diamond watch.

Tell me.

Nobody will get hurt.

Look, Legs, I don't know what you got in your mind.

Give me a chance.

I can square your beef.

I've taken all I'm going to from you mafia rats.

You shut up.

Kid, where did Leonardo stash that shipment of opium he hide

Jack from me?

Don't talk, Tony.

Don't talk.

Come on, Buzzy.

Put him in the car.

We'll take him for a little ride.

I've been advised many times that it might be a good idea if I forgot what I know about

the Union Sportivo Italiano, the Mafioso, the Mafia.

But what I know, what I saw of the operation of the Mafia in the 20s, I can never forget.

And I think the story's best told for whatever it's worth to help prevent it happening again.

In 1926, the New York branch of the Mafia was headed by one Rayfield Cardillo.

He preferred that if you referred any of the members, you speak of them as the Brotherhood.

Oh, Brotherhood.

Cain slew Abel.

But what Lucky Silver did to make the wealth and power of the Mafia his makes Cain look

like an amateur.

Yes, there are many unbelievable but true stories of that incredible lawless period

known as the 20s.

But the exploits, conspiracies of Ricardo Silver are among the most incredible of them

all.

I'm Bonnie Raditsky, one of the 27 men on the gangster squad.

Shock troops of the police department, city of New York.

Really?

Yeah, Silver Brothers.

This one's dead, this one's still alive and he's breathing.

What?

I died?

Rico?

Who cut you up?

What did they do to me?

What did they do to me?

Come on, Rico, come on, tell me who it was.

I'll even the score.

I'm sorry.

I'm sorry.

I'm sorry.

I'm sorry.

I'm sorry.

I'm sorry.

I'm sorry.

I'm sorry.

I'm sorry.

I'm sorry.

I'm sorry.

I'll even the score.

Who are you?

Raditsky.

Come on, who was it?

Who carved you up?

Raditsky?

Yeah.

Eat your own heart.

All right, wise guy, if that's the way you want it.

But I'll eat yours out first.

They killed your brother.

It doesn't hurt.

All right, try this one on for size.

The doctor said it was a little too big.

I'll cut it.

I'll cut it.

I'll cut it.

I'll cut it.

I'll cut it.

I'll cut it.

I'll cut it.

I'll cut it.

I'll cut it.

I'll cut it.

I'll cut it.

I'll cut it.

I'll cut it.

I'll cut it.

Come on, take a little exercise, the doctor says you'll probably lose your eye, and the

way your face is carved up, all you need to go into business is a tin cup.

And come on, do one decent, clean thing in your life.

Tell me who it was, I'll put him away.

At least you get that satisfaction.

I'll make my own satisfaction.

if you live long enough.

And I don't know whether you're that lucky.

Thank you, boy.

The newspaper reporter picked up my casual statement and twisted it

so that it came out in print.

If you live, they ought to call you lucky.

He lived.

If I knew then what I was to find out not too many months later,

I wouldn't have dismissed this routine questioning

by admitting to myself no one has yet made a member of the mafia talk.

Elberon, New Jersey, the home of Rayfield Cardillo,

the dictatorial head of the New York branch of the Brotherhood, the mafia.

Rayfield had come a long way in the 22 years since he got off the boat.

He was very proud of his Americanization.

One of the ways he showed it was with the noble gesture

of importing and adopting two of his sister's children.

He treated Leonardo Nuccio as if he were his own blood son

and made him heir apparent to the dynasty he felt he was building.

Patrina he loved like a father loves a daughter.

I'm not so sure he'll come.

He'll come.

It was his idea.

Leonardo, Lucky Silver has changed.

Lucky.

He's changed his name, too, huh?

The newspapers gave it to him and he likes it.

Yeah, yeah, I know.

Tell me, what else does he like, huh?

I'd slap your face if I didn't know you had too much to drink.

No, I can't have too much to drink. I mean what I say.

Maybe you can fool Papa Raffaella, but you can't fool me.

Leonardo, why don't you grow up?

No, no, no. You got it bad for Silver.

You pretend out of the goodness of your heart you went to the hospital

a couple times a week to see him, huh?

Papa's right. You're no good.

Yeah, you can't get a man, huh?

And so you wait till one is on his back in the bed

and you got him where he can't run away.

Leonardo, let go of him. You're hurting my feelings.

No, it's the truth. I'm your brother. I got a right to know.

He hasn't let me see him since they took the bandage off his face.

That's too bad.

Yeah, I just think you could have kissed it for him, huh?

Hey! Hey! Hey, it's good to see you.

Come on in, huh? Come on in. I'll buy you a drink.

Are they here?

Well, sure, they're here. They're all here, just like you wanted.

I mean, they've been waiting for you three months.

They can wait a couple of minutes longer. Come on, I'll buy you a drink, huh?

No, I don't want no drink.

Hey, Leonardo, I want to talk to you for a minute before you go in there, huh?

They call me Lucky now.

What, are you a kid or something?

You see a name on the papers, are you impressed?

If the press boys call you a jerk, you're going to change your name to jerk?

I mean, yeah.

Look.

Now look, don't play with me. I'm warning you. Don't play with me.

Look, we've been friends a long time, Leonardo.

You watch out, you keep it that way, huh?

Who knows? From the beating he took, it might have affected his head.

Anyway, we'll find out.

They must have cut out a piece of his brain.

How else you figure?

He asked for the brotherhood. No bandit.

If a leg's a diamond, I'm off. I killed my brother.

He's the one in all the land.

That's no good.

Sure, he's out of his head.

Welcome home, Pops.

Good to see you.

How are you?

Fine.

How's your little man?

We can't wait to find out what's such a big deal.

We gotta call a special meeting.

Did he tell you like he told me, huh?

No, he didn't tell nothing yet.

Well, tell him already.

Our friend here's got a big deal.

From now on, we gotta call him Lucky.

Eh? Lucky!

Well, thank you.

All of you.

I suffered great grief and deep pain.

Only because the brotherhood gave me its strength was I lucky to come through.

I love you all and I would die for you.

Very nice speech, Silver.

You tell us what you're gonna tell us.

Look, when Leg's a diamond, when Leg's a diamond cuts me up and kills my brother,

I wanna see his blood in the gutter.

I wanna pour it like wine

and see the ground soak it up and the sump beat on it

and fill the air with its blood.

And fill the air with its stink.

But they got me strapped to a bed. I'm so wild with hatred.

I eat myself with hatred.

Yes, how come you turned the other cheek, huh?

Because I got the idea.

Ah, you worry about your head. You're talking riddles.

Come on, it's getting pretty late.

What's the big idea, huh? What's the good idea?

You're gonna send Leg's diamond a medal for killing your brother?

No.

I'm gonna send Leg's diamond an invite to a meet.

You all think the brotherhood of the Mafioso is so big and important, huh?

Well, how can it be so big and important

when our chapter's still doing hijacking and penny anti-rackets,

second-rate numbers games, two-bit hijacking, huh?

You don't like our operation, huh?

So we make a special consideration and we let you out.

Maybe you'll be the first and the last brother to be out alive.

Look, I don't want out!

Sometimes I think you all should go back to the old country.

You're talking like a Korean tongue, boy!

Look, I got an idea. I got an idea.

I got an idea. The brotherhood could become

the biggest, most important organization in all country.

In a whole of the USA.

We make an organization with all the other mobs.

Gara, Dutch Schultz, Zwilman.

All the number one mobs with our brotherhood at their head.

They'll be like the body, like the eye of an octopus.

And they'll be like the arms, the tentacles, huh?

I tell you, he's out of his head!

Yeah, like Caesar. He was out of his head, too.

I can see it in your eyes, my dear. He's right.

Now, don't close your mind. You just think about it. Think about it.

Just remember.

Like an octopus.

What makes you think the mobs will buy such organization?

They'll do what makes you think they won't.

They'll want it for the same reason you do.

More money, bigger power, lots of protection.

How you gonna sell it to mob at the organization, huh?

I tried it on you.

I'll try it on them.

We gonna talk, too, first.

Next time.

I told you, he's out of his head!

No, no, he's right.

It's time you listen to me now, Ann.

Lucky, he's got you like a bunch of old hens sit around here.

It's time you listen to the younger generation.

He's got a wonderful idea. An octopus organization.

Lucky?

Katrina, I want to talk to you.

You don't have to explain, Lucky.

That ain't exactly pretty.

Bye.

See you tomorrow night, huh?

If I was you, Legs, I wouldn't trust this bum any further than I can throw the Brooklyn Bridge.

Stop guessing.

Boss.

What makes you think I trust him?

I'm thinking of your health if he wants to even the score.

And in this meeting, he has a finger in, boy, we're asking for it.

Shut up, Buzzy. I'm thinking.

If he breathes hard, blow his brains out.

Get in.

Thanks for showing, Legs.

Save it.

You got to have something pretty interesting on your noggin.

You wouldn't have been nuts enough to ask for this meeting.

Of course, I'm betting you ain't off your rocket.

Like I told you on the phone, I'm something you're going to thank me, Legs.

One thing I'm sure.

You don't want to thank me for that little payoff I gave you last time we got together.

Look, Legs, you're no fool, huh?

You know that if I'm willing to pass that off, I got something worthwhile.

Yeah?

That's why I took you up on this meeting.

I'm dying to hear what's so important that'd make you let bygones be bygones and turn the other cheek.

Can you trust him?

More than I can trust you.

Okay.

How would you like to double your gross without a quarter investment?

Which operation?

All of them. All of them.

Gunning, bootlegging, numbers, narcotics, horses.

I know my business.

What's yours?

Organization.

Government.

Like the USA, United States of America, 48.

What do you think one lousy state would be like operating on its own?

Well, the mobs are like the states before some joker come along and drop a paper and had them organized.

We get together with all the mobs, all the number one mobs.

The Dutchman, Waxy, Bugsy Segal, Bobo's Wilman, Capone, North, East, West, South.

All of them.

Lucky Silver sold Legs Diamond on the advantage of union.

The strength, or muscle as they called it, they would have in joining together.

Only one thing Lucky forgot in this pitch.

There was no mention of the mafia being the head.

Even the gangsters wouldn't buy dictatorship.

So, Lucky sold the American plan, government by representation.

Lucky Silver was flushed with the excitement of first success.

He was a dedicated man with a mission.

I got to talk to Rafael.

I got to talk to you.

Is Rafael home?

Yes.

Oh, good.

Rafael and Leonardo hurt each other's throats.

Well, let's know about that.

They're fighting about you.

Why?

Rafael had the brotherhood heads for a meeting early this evening.

They will not go along with your ideas.

Well, why does that make Rafael fight with Leonardo, huh?

Leonardo thinks you have a good idea.

In an octopus organization.

Well, what do you think?

I think the brotherhood's few old men are not willing to give you a chance.

Look, Patrina, I've known a lot of women in my time, you know.

I mean, I wouldn't lie to you about that.

I've never met a woman that I feel like I do about you.

Teresa says as good as my mother.

Mom.

Mom, I told you not to bother.

So let me fuss.

I don't see you that much that I shouldn't want to.

Eat.

It won't hurt you.

Make your mama happy, huh?

I thank you before I taste it.

Yeah, I can smell the flavor of the old country.

If he doesn't eat his, Mama, I'll eat it for him.

Good.

I don't know why my boy didn't bring you to my table before.

He brings lots of men that I don't like.

But you are the first one that I see something in the eyes that tell me that you are a good boy.

Mama, Mama, we got important business to talk.

Now leave us alone already.

Come on.

You don't know how lucky you are to have such a mama like that, huh?

Yeah, sure, sure.

You say it was Raffaello, Mario and Ferruccio, huh, that turned thumbs down on my idea?

Yeah, yeah, that's right.

None of the others?

No.

All the others are with you, Lucky.

I mean, there are only those three.

I don't know if you were the head man of the Brotherhood and I was behind you.

You know what we have to do to get what we want.

Hey, you give me your word, you support me, I mean, all the way in, huh?

On the Bible.

On the Bible.

There you go.

Thank you.

If you could cook a lasagna like your mother does, maybe you can sell us your idea.

So next time I get an idea, first I learn how to bake a cake.

What do you do?

You give Leonardo the pasta your mama cooked to find out who in the Brotherhood vote against your idea?

Nobody say Leonardo said anything.

Nobody have to.

I always told you, Leonardo is not the man you think he is.

You watch what you say, Ferruccio.

Leonardo's think too much.

When his men think too much, he's weak.

He need a strength.

Leonardo opened his big mouth to Lucky here when he should not.

Maybe that's all right.

Maybe next time he open his mouth, it's not so all right.

When you talk about Leonardo, it's like you talk about me.

Rafael.

They don't mean to hurt you, Rafael.

The only reason I say such things is because they feel so close.

It's all.

Sit down.

Come on, sit down.

I got a surprise for you.

Something you'll never forget.

It's almost time.

Sit down.

Well, you see what I got.

You don't like my surprise.

I'll eat it myself.

Rafael, it's not like Leonardo or your own blood.

Leonardo.

The newspapers would carry blaring headlines.

Gang war erupts.

Three men.

Rafael Cardillo, David Ferrucci, Mario Stromboli.

To add to the list, that by the time the roaring twenties had simmered down to a whimper, would total over 700.

Newspapers could give their stories that extra bit of color by playing up Lucky Silver, pointing out that his name was fitting.

He escaped death again by the graces of Lady Luck.

They also would put two and two together and get the right answer.

Anybody could add this.

Legs Diamond's mob had done the shooting.

They were after the mafia heads to settle an old score.

The same one they carved Lucky Silver up for months ago.

It was an obvious situation.

Too obvious.

So.

Lucky, don't you leave town without checking with me.

I might want you as a material witness.

What do you bother me at a time like this?

With this key, you got no heart at all.

You want a person to be personally go ahead.

But I was in the kitchen, didn't even see the shooting.

I got all kinds of witnesses.

Substantiate.

Yes, what bothers me?

How did you know to be in the kitchen?

I'm lucky.

What you going to do about it?

Give you enough rope.

So.

The Brotherhood waited a week before they held a meeting to elect the man who would rule the mafia.

It would double cross his own mother.

He's the devil himself.

You should be happy.

You always hated the Brotherhood.

Lucky crossed me.

He and the rest of the mafia.

Lucky wasn't even at the meeting.

I'll kill him.

So help me.

On the Bible, I'll kill him.

I'll kill him.

So help me.

I'll kill him.

Go away, please go away.

What are you sick or something?

Look, Leonardo's drunk and wants to kill you.

Why?

They elected you to Rafael's chair.

Leonardo says you lied to him.

What else did he tell you?

Something I don't understand.

What?

You are as much to blame as he is.

Where is the phone?

Leonardo!

Leonardo!

Lucky!

You got everything now, huh?

Shut up!

You, you bullsuck bum!

You got the Brotherhood, huh?

You got Petrina.

You got me to do your killing for you, huh?

How am I doing, huh boss, huh?

Did I do a good enough job for you, huh?

And Mario and Ferrucci and Papa Rafael, huh?

Anybody else you want to be hit, huh boss?

You shut up!

I got one more thing for you.

I'm gonna have a terrible hangover.

You listen to me.

You'll forget tonight, huh?

You'll forget tonight and everything will be alright.

You hear me?

You hear me?

I hear you.

Look, look, look, look, look.

I'll be back in half an hour.

I'll be back tonight and I'll make you forget everything.

Everything you heard and saw.

You understand?

You understand?

I understand.

Okay, now look, I'm gonna get rid of him.

I'll be back tonight and make you forget everything.

You wait.

Yeah, well, how much time have I got?

Stall him.

Katrina.

Katrina.

Lucky.

There's no need to hurry now.

I promise.

I promise you won't be sorry.

Lucky.

You've had enough rope.

Lucky Silver.

Executed October 9th, 1926.

The newspapers that gave him his name relegated his story to second page news.

Lucky Silver.

Lucky Silver.