Kingpins

We are thrilled to bring you a brand new episode of Kingpins today and for the foreseeable future. We thank you for your patience during this unprecedented time. As a child in post-World War II South London, Charlie Richardson learned quickly that the path out of working class life was crime. It wouldn't be long before Richardson was running a criminal empire—and instituted his infamous “Torture Court” to keep London's other criminals in line. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

By 1905, Joseph Petrosino and his Italian Squad were at war with the nefarious Black Hand. As murder, extortion, and bombings plagued the Italian neighborhoods of New York, Petrosino knew that if he wanted to bring down this dead organization, he would have to get creative. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In the mid-1880s, immigrant Joseph Petrosino joined the NYPD as one of the few Italians on the force. Over the next two decades, he proved himself to be one of the most famous detectives in the city. But at the dawn of the 1900s, Petrosino would find himself up against a new kind of threat...called the “Black Hand.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In 3000 BCE, coins and paper money hadn't been invented yet. But this was when history's first large-scale pot dealers, known as the Yamnaya, began selling drugs in China and Western Europe—and in the process, changed the course of human evolution. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Due to the unfortunate spread of COVID-19, Parcast has decided to halt recording for the time-being. This is a precautionary measure taken to ensure the safety of our hosts and staff. In the meantime, we're excited to share one of our classic episodes that we know you'll enjoy! By the time he stood trial in 2012, 70-year-old Haji Bagcho had been moving drugs for nearly five decades, and was responsible for 20% of the entire world's heroin supply. But he didn't climb to the top on his own...he had some help from both the CIA and the Taliban. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

When John Gotti Senior went to prison in 1992, his son, Junior, tried to keep control of the Gambino Family. But it became apparent to Albanian-American John Alite that his old friend was unfit to lead. Within a few short months, the one-time friends were at war with each other. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In the 1980s, John Alite grew up in Queens with a promising career in baseball. But when that career was shattered in college, he returned to his neighborhood and started selling drugs to make money. In no time at all, he was running cocaine and doling out beatings for the Gambino Family. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

With the Hell's Angels making inroads as a drug dealing empire, Sonny Barger was on top of the world... until his Angels started getting booked on homicide charges. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In 1963, at the age of twenty-five, Sonny Barger sat at the top of the burgeoning empire known as the “Hell’s Angels.” The outlaw biker club, known for drinking, fighting, and dealing drugs, rose to national infamy alongside the counterculture movements of the 1960s. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Kingpins listeners… we have some exciting news! Kate has a new co-host, Alastair! If he sounds familiar, it is because he hosts other Parcast shows like Villains and Con Artists. Continue to tune in every Friday to listen to Kate and Alastair on Kingpins!  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On the last Sunday of every month, Parcast Rewind replays a classic episode of Kingpins that you might have missed!  He had come from nothing, and yet had risen to become Chicago’s most feared and respected crime lord. Everybody knew “Diamond Jim,” and not just for his jewelry and that flashy three-piece suit he always wore. By 1914, Jim Colosimo controlled more than a 100 businesses in Chicago’s Red Light District. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

With Al Capone finally behind bars, Eliot Ness needed a new fish to fry. His move to Cleveland, Ohio ended up reshaping his career in the police force, with a very unexpected ending. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

As Prohibition amplified chaos in the streets of Chicago, federal agent Eliot Ness took to targeting the city's own mob royalty—Al Capone—in hopes of quashing the bootlegging that lined the pockets of gangsters and crooked cops. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

At age thirty-three, Paul Le Roux had his hands in everything from gold to guns to illicit drugs. By early 2009, his pharmacy network, RX Limited, was bringing in hundreds of millions of dollars. But it was his doomed tuna fishing venture in Somalia that eventually led to his downfall. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

He was an expert computer programmer and an early adopter of the internet. In the mid-2000s, Paul Le Roux made millions through online prescription drugs and helped contribute to the current opioid addiction crisis. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On the last Sunday of every month, Parcast Rewind replays a classic episode of Kingpins that you might have missed!  Frank Lucas found his way into the New York City underworld, and under the wing of a man known as the Harlem Godfather, emerged as one of the most powerful drug kingpins of all time. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

As the other Harlem policy bankers fall at the hands of Dutch Schultz, Stephanie St. Clair stood firm. Unfortunately for St. Clair, Schultz had political muscles and members of the NYPD on his payroll.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

When she was just a teenager, Stephanie St. Clair immigrated to the United States from the French West Indies without a penny to her name. By the 1920s, with $10,000 mysteriously in her hand, she opened up her own numbers racket and became one of the most successful racketeers in Harlem. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Known as the “Ivory Queen,” Yang Feng Glan was a Chinese smuggler who helped move nearly 2-tons of illegal ivory out of Tanzania throughout the 2000s. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Here’s one of our listeners’ most requested episodes of 2019: By 1983, Rick Ross had risen to become the reigning kingpin of South Central LA. But when he made a deal with a new supplier named Danilo Blandon, he ended up getting into much more than he’d bargained for. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices