Retired Intelligence Detective Gary Jenkins brings you the best in mob history with his unique perception of the mafia. In this episode, Gary and mob lawyer expert Tony Taouk examine the life and career of famous mafia lawyer Oscar Goodman. Based in Las Vegas, Oscar Goodman has been the Midwest and Western Mob’s go-to lawyer for his 40-year career. Oscar Goodman remained professional in all his encounters with Mob bosses like Tony Spilotro, Nick Civella, Lefty Rosenthal and many others. Mr. Goodman’s most dramatic courtroom victory had to be when he obtained a Not Guilty verdict for the El Paso drug kingpin, Jimmy Chagra. In this case, juries convicted Woody Harrelson’s father, Charles Harrelson, for the murder of Texas Federal Judge John “Maximum John” Wood in El Paso. The government claimed that Jimmy Chagra paid Harrelson to murder the judge. Harrelson’s wife, Chagra’s wife, and Chagra’s brother were all convicted in the same case.

Tony Taouk is an Australian lawyer and a Mafia researcher who specializes in the subject of mob trials and mob lawyers. He has also traveled to the United States and visited mob-related sites in New York, Chicago, and Las Vegas.

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Transcript

SPEAKERS

Lefty Rosenthal, Announcer, GARY JENKINS, Tony Taourk, Harry Reid, Oscar Goodman, Tuffy DeLuna, Nick Civella

00:00

Frank Rosenthal was obviously ruffling a few feathers because he’s high profile battle with the authorities in Las Vegas to obtain his gaming license was attracting too much attention which the mob, especially the Chicago outfit tended to shun. Apparently he made it even worse when he started his own talk show on television.

00:22

Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Why stop snowing.

00:30

And Frank Rosenthal was who was already a colorful gambling figure he had attracted the attention of the authorities because of his ties to the Chicago outfit. He was a bookmaker gambler, and he was also implicated in multiple sports bribery scandals over the years, so he was already attracting a lot of attention. They just wanted him to come down.

00:55

lack of better word.

01:00

I think that’s what it was referred to that why tap? Isn’t that right?

01:03

Yeah. Yeah, that’s it. Well, welcome. While you were to average out there, back here in studio of Gangland Wire, I’m on the Zoom call. If you’re on YouTube, with our friend, Tony Taourk from Sydney, Australia. Tony is a lawyer down there, and he has a huge interest in mob lawyers and being lawyer, you know, you got to have interest in other lawyers. And when you look into them, you want to see a lot more about how they work and what made them successful or not successful. I know I do the same thing when I read about Mob lawyers. And so Tony has done that. And you know, we’ve done one other show about Roy Cohen with him, which was really interesting. I didn’t know hardly anything about Roy Cohn at the time. Tonight, we’re gonna do Oscar Goodman. I know a lot about Oscar good. And then because I sat in the witness chair while he cross examined me one time scared the heck out of me. He wasn’t that big a deal, but I didn’t have that much to say. Anyhow. So welcome, Tony. It’s really good to have you back.

02:00

Thank you for having me, Gary.

02:02