Curated playlist
People convicted of racketeering
- John A. GottiJohn Angelo Gotti, called Junior, sat through four racketeering trials between 2004 and 2009, and not one of them ended in a conviction. Yet he had already been to prison. In 1999 he was jailed for racketeering, after running the Gambino…
- Carmine PersicoCarmine Persico, known as Junior and as Immortal, had a projected prison release date of the 20th of March 2050. By then he would have been 117 years old. The sentence behind that date began in 1987, and he served 32 years of it. Yet the…
- Keith RaniereKeith Raniere was addressed by his followers as Vanguard, and for twenty years he led a company in Albany, New York, called NXIVM. The company sold personal development seminars. From 1998 to 2018 it drew 700 members at its height, among…
- R. KellyBeneath the Chicago "L" tracks, at the Jackson stop on the Red Line in the Loop, a young school dropout named Robert Kelly sang for passing commuters. Decades later, as R. Kelly, he had sold more than 75 million albums and singles…
- Joey MerlinoJoseph Salvatore Merlino, known as Skinny Joey, was born on the 13th of March 1962 and rose to become the reputed boss of the Philadelphia crime family. His reign ran from the 1990s until 2024. Once, a television reporter asked him about a…
- Chuck BlazerChuck Blazer, a top FIFA official, had never played soccer. He began by coaching his son's youth team in 1976.
- Kermit GosnellKermit Gosnell's West Philadelphia clinic was raided on the 18th of February 2010, when investigators arrived at 3801 Lancaster Avenue with a search warrant. Gosnell was a doctor who had practiced in the city for decades. The agents were…
- Michael FranzeseIn 1986, Fortune magazine ranked Michael Franzese number 18 among the wealthiest and most powerful Mafia bosses in America. He was 35 years old. Franzese was a caporegime, or crew captain, in the Colombo crime family of New York City.…
- Anthony SalernoAnthony Salerno, known to everyone as Fat Tony, was 75 years old in October 1986 when Fortune magazine named him the most powerful, wealthy and influential gangster in America. It was an odd honor for a man whose health was failing. He had…
- Sonny FranzeseSonny Franzese walked out of the Federal Medical Center in Devens, Massachusetts, on the 23rd of June 2017, at the age of 100. On that day he was the oldest federal inmate in the United States, and the only centenarian in federal custody.…