How a Mafia Leader’s ‘Serious Miscalculation’ Helped ‘Prove a Conspiracy’

In the world of the Mafia, silence is the secret. When one man revealed a little too much about his ties to organized crime, everything came crashing down.

In the September 5 episode of Law and Order: Criminal Justice Systemthe podcast described how in 1983, Joe Bonannothe leader of the Bonanno crime family, admitted the existence of the Mafia and a collaboration between the five largest crime families while promoting his memoir on 60 minuteswhich broke the mafia’s ‘code of silence’ and ‘sent a wave of change through the criminal world.’

“Bonanno promoted a memoir about his life of crime, a public display of arrogance that would have been unheard of in history. Happy Luciano“It’s day,” said the host Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi“Although Bonanno was the first former boss to publicly acknowledge the existence of the Mafia, he had also made a serious miscalculation.”

Bonanno’s book detailed his problems with the Commission, a collection of other crime bosses that until then had been described by lawyers for organized crime suspects on trial as “the government’s theory” and as something that “doesn’t exist.”

“The Commission was like the board of the Five Families that ran and ruined New York City and its environs. Bonanno’s admission of its existence gave law enforcement a new angle to attack. The Commission’s evidence provided a way to link the families and prove a conspiracy,” Nicolazzi said.

The Law and Order: Criminal Justice System podcast launched in August and “tells the real stories behind the landmark cases that shaped the way America’s most dangerous and influential criminals are prosecuted.” The Wolf Entertainment and iHeartPodcasts show, hosted by Nicolazzi, recently premiered its first season and focuses on the “downfall” of the New York Mafia throughout its first season. According to the podcast description:

“In the first season, the series takes on the most powerful crime organization in American history, the New York Mafia. Discover how the seemingly random murder of an influential mobster set in motion a chain of events that led to the downfall of the city’s five largest crime families at the height of their power.”

Watch the first few episodes and follow all the twists and turns of the series. Law and Order: Criminal Justice System podcast, now available on iHeartRadio.com.