My guest this week is bestselling author Lou Ferrante. He was an associate in the Gambino crime family before going to prison, where he studied history and began writing books. He joins us to talk about the origins of the Sicilian Mafia and how they followed Italian immigrants to the United States, initially establishing themselves in crime-ridden New Orleans alongside a corrupt police force. 

His new book is called "Borgata: Rise of Empire: A History of the American Mafia", the first volume of his Mafia trilogy. 

More about Lou Ferrante and his work on his website: https://louisferrante.com/
Lou Ferrante's Simon & Schuster Publisher Page: https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Borgata/Louis-Ferrante/Borgata-Trilogy/9781639366019
Lou Ferrante on Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/louferrante
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334:  The Birth of the Mafia w/ Louis Ferrante

Serial killers. Gangsters. Gunslingers. Victorian-era murderers. And that's just the tip of the iceberg. Each week, the Most Notorious podcast features true-life tales of crime, criminals, tragedies and disasters throughout history. Host Erik Rivenes interviews authors and historians who have studied their subjects for years. Their stories are offered with unique insight, detail, and historical accuracy.

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Just after midnight on July 6, 1932, twenty-year-old Zachary Smith Reynolds, a renowned aviator and an heir to the R.J. Reynolds tobacco fortune, was shot in the family's summer home in what is now Winston-Salem, North Carolina. While some believed the moody young man had committed suicide, evidence suggested someone else had pulled the trigger, and eventually Reynolds' wife, Broadway actress Libby Holman, and his best friend, A.B. Walker, would be indicted for murder.

I'm joined by Phil Archer, the Betsy Main Babcock Deputy Director at Reynolda House Museum of American Art. He helped create Reynolda's popular exhibition, called "Smith & Libby: Two Rings, Seven Months, One Bullet", which can now be experienced in a condensed form on the very porch where Smith died.


More about the Reynolda Museum here: https://reynolda.org/
Watch the original exhibition trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bVYrVhMK7M&t=5s
Libby Holman sings the traditional folk song "House of the Rising Sun": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4ZGrlO7JU4
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341:  The Mysterious Death of Zachary Smith Reynolds w/ Phil Archer

This week we revisit one of my favorite Most Notorious episodes. In the small town of Isadore Michigan in 1907, a young nun named Janina disappeared. Ten years later, her body is discovered by a priest intent on building a new church on the foundation of the old one. Mardi Link, author of "Isadore's Secret", chats with me about the terrible circumstances surrounding the death of Sister Janina.

The author's website: https://www.mardilink.com/
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MoNo Encore:  The Murder of Sister Janina w/ Mardi Link

On a warm August day in 1910, Sheriff Jake Houpt and his deputies attempted to arrest brothers George and Oscar Chitwood outside the Garland County Courthouse in Hot Springs, Arkansas. A gunfight soon erupted, leaving both the sheriff and George dead. And when Oscar himself was killed in December under the protection of deputies, a mob of mysterious masked men were blamed for the lynching. But evidence suggests the story of Oscar's death might have been a cover for something else.

My guest is Christopher Thrasher, who along with fellow author and historian Guy Lancaster wrote the book "The Murder of Oscar Chitwood in Hot Springs, Arkansas". He summarizes this fascinating story for us on this latest episode of Most Notorious.


Christopher Thrasher's Amazon author page: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Christopher-Thrasher/author/B0C3Z3ZGQK
The book's publisher page: https://www.arcadiapublishing.com/products/9781467153270
The Encyclopedia of Arkansas: https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/
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340:  The Murder of Oscar Chitwood w/ Christopher Thrasher

Six months after losing a world title fight that remains infamous as one of the last mob fixes in boxing, Tyrone “The Butterfly” Everett—a flashy, handsome lightweight southpaw on the verge of stardom—was dead. Only twenty-four years old, he was shot in the head by his girlfriend, Carolyn McKendrick, who claimed that Everett had abused her throughout their relationship. But for years, street corner talk raised doubts about what actually took place in Philadelphia at 2710 Federal Street on May 26, 1977.

My guest is journalist Sean Nam, author of "Murder on Federal Street: Tyrone Everett, the Black Mafia, Fixed Fights, and the Last Golden Age of Philadelphia Boxing." He gives us an outline of the drama and shares theories regarding who might be responsible for the up-and-coming fighter's demise, including the possible involvement of a violent Philly organization called "The Black Mafia".

The author's website: https://www.murderonfederalstreet.com/

The author on Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/seanpasbon
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339:  The Killing of Boxer Tyrone Everett  w/ Sean Nam

Today we have special back-to-back episodes from the History Daily podcast. The first shares the story of the capture of one of the UK's most notorious serial killers, the Yorkshire Ripper, and the second is about the tumultuous life of Russian tsar Ivan the Terrible.

Visit the History Daily website for more information about the show. https://historydaily.org/


More about the Most Notorious podcast here: https://www.mostnotorious.com/
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334: The Birth of the Mafia w/ Louis Ferrante

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