Quendrith Johnson

by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent

If you grew up in any major East Coast metro area in the 1970’s, you kind of knew which streets were safe, or in the case of Boston’s North End, which were La Cosa Nostra (our cause). Say restaurants and shops fronted by Gennaro “Jerry” Anguilo of the Anguilo Bros. Plus you likely were aware that the Anguilo Family answered to the Patriarca’s who were allied with the Gambino Family. Which leads to the Five Families as they were (are?) known as: Gambino, Genovese, Luccese, Colombo and Bonanno.

Even though the last Anguilo, Francesco the accountant, died at 94 in 2015, the North End is still respected for its wiseguys. And with Netflix airing FEAR CITY: NEW YORK vs. THE MAFIA on July 22, those damning secret recordings of this pentagon of punishers (five families) will be made public.

The stand-out quote from their newly released docuseries trailer? “I’ve never heard so many creative uses of the ‘f’ word,” one talking head reveals.

Speaking of severed heads, well, welcome to the street justice with flair and exceptional home-cooking that was NYC’s mob rule once upon a when, with men like Jerry Anguilo, Vito Genovese, Joe Bonnano, Carlo Gambino who went by a shared honor code of their own.

This is before trash-talking John Gotti, a Gambino heir apparent, who smashed up the syndicate in the 80’s with his pendant for braggadocio and bespoke suits; when crime paid, and the mob bosses were the CEO’s of the underworld and the omertà mean something.

See La Cosa Nostra Through an FBI Keyhole 

Director: Sam Hobkinson

Executive Producers: Dimitri Doganis, Bart Layton, Adam Hawkins, Jon Liebman

How Netflix Bills This One:

Throughout the 1970s and ’80s, the “Five Families” of the New York mafia—Bonanno, Colombo, Gambino, Genovese and Luccese—held a powerful, and seemingly insurmountable, grip on the city. In this three-part docuseries from RAW (Don’t F**K With Cats) and Brillstein Entertainment, award-winning documentarian Sam Hobkinson details the incredible story of the history-making organized crime investigation and prosecution case brought against New York’s most formidable mob bosses. Through interviews with dozens of law enforcement officials, ex-mafia associates and others, FEAR CITY: NEW YORK vs. THE MAFIA sheds light on how the mafia’s control of unions, high-rise construction and other industries netted billions for organized crime. Previously unheard surveillance recordings, news footage and archival material alongside new interviews and reenactments paint a shocking and captivating portrait of this “Golden Era of the Mob.”

Find out more about mobsters and lobsters, ps, or just these mobsters here.

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