Kingpins

Today’s quote comes from Salvatore Profaci, an influential captain in the famous Colombo crime family, based in New York City.

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Today’s quote is from union organizer Jimmy Hoffa. When mafia hitman Frank “The Irishman” Sheeran was looking for work, an associate arranged a phone call with the infamous union man.

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Today’s quote is from notorious bank robber John Dillinger. Dillinger had no illusions of righteousness. He knew that robbing banks was not only a crime, but a very public one.

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Today’s quote is from Benjamin “Lefty” Ruggiero. Ruggiero was a notorious thug, and is thought to have murdered 26 people during his 30 years working for the New York Mafia.

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Today’s quote comes from Charles “Lucky” Luciano, the father of the American Mafia. After Prohibition, and a bloody gang war that turned New York City into the Wild West, Luciano seized control of the underworld.

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Today, we’re remembering the words of Italian judge Giovanni Falcone. He spent most of his professional life trying to overthrow the dangerous Sicilian Mafia.

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By 1987, Carlos Lehder Rivas and George Jung had scraped together a cocaine smuggling empire fit for kings. Yet as profits grew, the two partners found themselves at odds—diverging away from each other to fulfill their own desires for power and prosperity.

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Today’s quote is from hitman Jhon Jairo “Popeye” Velásquez, of the Medellín drug cartel. Velásquez was Pablo Escobar’s right hand man throughout the ‘80s, until his arrest in 1989.

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Today’s quote is from Sam Giancana, the mafia boss who controlled the Chicago Outfit from the 1940s to the 1960s. As one of the most powerful mafiosos in the nation, Giancana was a prime target of Attorney General Robert Kennedy’s crusade against organized crime.

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Today’s quote is from Meyer Lansky, otherwise known as the “Mafia’s Banker.” An associate of famed mobster Lucky Luciano, Lansky established a sprawling gambling empire.

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