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Gangland Wire

Gangland Wire

By: Gary Jenkins: Mafia Detective
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Gangland Wire Crime Stories is a unique true crime podcast. The host, Gary Jenkins, is a former Kansas City Police Intelligence Unit Detective. Gary uses his experience to give insigtful twists on famous organized characters across the United States. He tells crime stories from his own career and invites former FBI agents, police officers and criminals to educate and entertain listeners.Copyright 2024 Gangland Wire Social Sciences True Crime World
Episodes
  • A Mafia Counterfeit Ring

    A Mafia Counterfeit Ring
    Jul 16 2025
    Hey Wiretappers, listen to my short bonus episode. I'm looking for mob fans to read the first half of a memoir about my life, which is partly about being a cop and mostly about the Civella Spero War. Email me at ganglandwire@gmail.com and I'll send you a pdf to read. It's about 22,000 words. Once it's done, I'll send you a copy This week, we journey back to the early 1900s—a time when the first wave of Sicilian immigrants brought more than just dreams of opportunity to America. They also brought with them an age-old criminal code that would lay the foundation for the American Mafia as we know it. Our story begins with the Mustache Petes—those old-world mafiosi who preyed on their own immigrant communities through intimidation, extortion, and a cunning knack for organized crime. One of their earliest rackets? Counterfeiting. 💵 A Nationwide Web of Fake Money In 1901, the Secret Service—then the only federal law enforcement agency with a national reach—uncovered a brand-new counterfeit $5 bill in circulation. This was no small operation. The National Iron Bank of Morristown, New Jersey, had unknowingly unleashed a run worth $250,000—millions in today’s money. Agents quickly linked the phony bills to a sophisticated, coast-to-coast counterfeit ring run by Sicilian gang leaders like Ignacio “Lupo the Wolf” Lupo and Giuseppe Morello. These men were more than petty crooks—they were the original godfathers of organized crime in New York City. 🔪 Violence and Betrayal in the Shadows As the Secret Service tracked counterfeiters from Yonkers to Pittsburgh to San Francisco, they met ruthless opposition. Notorious mobsters like Vito Catone didn’t hesitate to attack federal agents. One desperate fugitive even tried to escape by lunging at agents with a knife, fleeing through a rail yard, and getting knocked down by bricks thrown from a moving train. Law enforcement, often under-armed and outnumbered, were up against killers willing to silence anyone in their way. 🩸 The Barrel Murder This bloody saga culminated in one of the earliest and most chilling mob murders on record: the infamous Barrel Murder of 1903. When a New York City woman stumbled upon a barrel with a nearly decapitated body inside, investigators connected the corpse to the Morello gang’s counterfeiting operation. The victim, Benedetto Madonia, had apparently been lured to New York to help secure legal fees for his jailed brother-in-law, Giuseppe DiPrimo—only to be betrayed and butchered by the very men he’d come to help. 🕵️ Secret Service Stings and Underworld Justice The Secret Service made arrests and even staged elaborate stings, using marked bills and informants to infiltrate the gang. But corruption, fear, and an underdeveloped justice system left many ringleaders untouched. One killer, Tomasso “Petto the Ox,” was freed despite damning evidence, only to be gunned down years later in a revenge hit that many believe was ordered by DiPrimo himself after his release from prison. 🔗 A Blueprint for the Mafia to Come These early black handers and Mustache Petes were rough drafts of the organized syndicates that would soon flourish under Prohibition. Counterfeiting required a clear chain of command, trusted lieutenants, and loyal foot soldiers—known back then as “queer pushers” who spread the fake bills far and wide. In many ways, it was a proving ground for the hierarchy that would one day run America’s underworld. Subscribe to get gangster stories weekly. Hit me up on Venmo for a cup of coffee or a shot and a beer @ganglandwire Click here to "buy me a cup of coffee" To go to the store or make a donation or rent Ballot Theft: Burglary, Murder, Coverup, click here To rent Brothers against Brothers, the documentary, click here. To rent Gangland Wire, the documentary, click here To buy my Kindle book, Leaving Vegas: The True Story of How FBI Wiretaps Ended Mob Domination of Las Vegas Casinos. [0:00] Well, hey,
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    14 mins
  • The Murder of Teddy Deegan and the FBI

    The Murder of Teddy Deegan and the FBI
    Jul 14 2025
    In this gripping episode of Gangland Wire, retired Kansas City Police Intelligence Unit detective Gary Jenkins unravels one of the most damning scandals in FBI history—a chilling story of corruption, betrayal, and a sanctioned murder that would stain the Bureau’s legacy for decades. Gary examines the sinister role played by FBI agent H. Paul Rico in the 1965 murder of Teddy Deegan. You’ll hear how, back in October 1964, Rico learned Deegan had been marked for a mob hit—yet the Bureau did nothing. Why? Because the killers were protected informants. Gary breaks down how the FBI built its case on the false testimony of mob informant Joe Barboza. Instead of stopping the murder plot, the Bureau sat on exculpatory evidence and let Barboza’s lies send Louis Greco, Henry Tamaleo, Peter Limone, and Joe Salvati to prison—two of them to death row. The FBI’s Informant Obsession: The Bureau’s relentless protection of violent informants like Barboza and Vincent “Jimmy the Bear” Flemmi reveals how an obsession with “winning” overshadowed basic justice. The Justice Department’s own admission in 2000 that they knew the real killers exposes just how far the corruption ran. From Cover-Up to Vindication: Follow the twisted timeline of the Deegan murder, the courtroom betrayals, and the decades-long fight to clear the names of the wrongfully convicted. Gary explores the human cost of a system that chose loyalty to informants over the truth. Why This Story Matters: This episode forces listeners to confront a haunting truth: when law enforcement trades integrity for convenience, innocent lives pay the price. Gary challenges you to rethink the myth of the Bureau’s infallibility—and to remember the names of the men who spent their lives behind bars for a crime they didn’t commit. Subscribe to get gangster stories weekly. Hit me up on Venmo for a cup of coffee or a shot and a beer @ganglandwire Click here to "buy me a cup of coffee" To go to the store or make a donation or rent Ballot Theft: Burglary, Murder, Coverup, click here To rent Brothers against Brothers, the documentary, click here. To rent Gangland Wire, the documentary, click here To buy my Kindle book, Leaving Vegas: The True Story of How FBI Wiretaps Ended Mob Domination of Las Vegas Casinos. Transcript [0:00] Well, hey, all you wiretappers out there, good to be back here in the studio. This is Gary Jenkins, former Kansas City Police Intelligence Unit detective. I've seen a lot of things in my life, and I just heard something in that interview I just did with Detective Mike Huff from Tulsa that I had never heard before. [0:18] I mean, I've heard a lot of corruption things, but this one, it just went beyond the pale, especially there at the end where he said that this H. Paul Rico asked him about his kids and how old his kids were. That was like, you know, and I, you know, I talked with that guy long enough to know that he wasn't lying. You know, he wasn't making that up. That was, it was just beyond the pale, if you ask me. But today's episode is going to be a little bit more about H. Paul Rico and a dark chapter in the FBI history. Now, this is before John Connolly and the Whitey Bulger cover-up and all that. H. Paul Rico was the agent that really broke in Connolly, I think, and taught him the ropes. He was a slick FBI agent that had all the informants, that always had the inside track on everything, knew where the deals were. And so let's talk a little more about this one incident that we glossed over in that interview with Mike Huff about the murder of the Roger Wheeler down in Tulsa at the golf course, the Southern Hills Golf Tournament. [1:30] And it was all over control of Jai alai, all the money that came out of Jai alai. This thing, it just, it was a web of deceit that reached into the highest levels of federal law enforcement, as you could tell from what Mr. Huff was saying. [1:44] And so I'm going to tell you the story of t...
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    Less than 1 minute
  • Paul Rico: Crooked Agent Gets His Due

    Paul Rico: Crooked Agent Gets His Due
    Jul 7 2025
    In this episode of Gangland Wire, retired Tulsa homicide detective Mike Huff joins host Gary Jenkins to break down one of the most shocking mob hits in U.S. history. Det. Huff tells about the 1981 murder of businessman Roger Wheeler at Southern Hills Country Club and the investigation that ended in the arrest of Boston F.B.I. agent Paul Rico. You can learn more about this story by reading Mike's book, Killing My Father: The Inside Story of the Biggest FBI Corruption Scandal in History. What started as a local homicide case quickly unraveled into a national organized crime conspiracy involving Florida Jai Alai gambling, the Winter Hill Gang, and notorious Boston mob boss Whitey Bulger. Huff shares how he uncovered links to FBI corruption, the Dixie Mafia, and hitman John Martorano, who eventually confessed to the killing. Huff also opens up about working with Roger Wheeler’s son, David, the emotional toll of the investigation, and how their joint efforts finally exposed the truth. His book Killing My Father reveals even more about this decades-long fight for justice. Subscribe to get gangster stories weekly. Hit me up on Venmo for a cup of coffee or a shot and a beer @ganglandwire Click here to "buy me a cup of coffee" To go to the store or make a donation or rent Ballot Theft: Burglary, Murder, Coverup, click here To rent Brothers against Brothers, the documentary, click here. To rent Gangland Wire, the documentary, click here To buy my Kindle book, Leaving Vegas: The True Story of How FBI Wiretaps Ended Mob Domination of Las Vegas Casinos. Transcript [0:00] Well, hey, all you wiretappers, good to be back here in the studio of Gangland Wire. I have another former cop, a retired copper from not too far away from Tulsa, Oklahoma, and he has a heck of a story. He's written a book about it, but it's a heck of a story. Down in Tulsa, Oklahoma, they've got a mob murderer. Well, now, mob murders don't just go down every day in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and it's a really interesting story that ties clear back to to the highlight business down in florida to the winter hill gang in uh boston massachusetts uh to whitey bulger really and and a hit man named john moderano and to a one of the infamous corrupt fbi agents out of boston you know they seem to have had a problem in the boston fbi for a period of years there and a couple three of their guys end up going to jail uh over probably being a little bit overly uh that they forgot where the line was it looks to me like but anyhow it was uh it's a retired detective mike huff welcome mike, Well, hey, welcome to U2. Thank you for doing this. All right, Mike. Now, tell us a little bit about your career. You know, how did you come up through the ranks in Tulsa PD? Well, I started in January of 1975. [1:20] I got promoted to a detective in 1980. I didn't much like it. It wasn't enough action. I had a good career on the street. But I like my supervisor a lot. So I stuck with this being a detective. [1:39] In May of 81, May 27th, you know, I just got to work. I was checking on a guy that I had shot three weeks earlier who was in intensive care. We're just sitting there and we're talking about we're going to eat supper. And I was on the phone with the hospital. Checking on this guy's condition, and police radio came on and said, we need all the homicide detectives to head out to Southern Hills Country Club on a shooting. I guess 5-0s that night, you know, we hit it out there, and, you know, Southern Hills, even at that time, before a lot of all the major golf tournaments they've since had, was a very, well, it was the kind of place that I wasn't familiar with. [2:34] Everybody with money was part of that country club, and I wasn't one of that crowd. There's a middle-aged man swamped over in a seated car. He'd been shot between the eyes. It was a little bit foreign to me. You know, I'd been a homicide detective for a year and had been to a good bunch of homicid...
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    1 hr and 4 mins
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good information from an on the scene investigator former police officer/ investigator nice presentation

good mob information

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