Host Margot Adler speaks with NYU law professor James Jacobs about the history of organized crime in America.
|
James Jacobs
is Chief Justice Warren E. Burger Professor of Constitutional Law and the Courts at New York University and director of its Center for Research in Crime and Justice. An expert on the mafia, his latest book is Mobsters, Unions and Feds.
|
|
|
|
|
Host Margot Adler learns about the Italian mafia in New York from author Thomas Reppetto.
|
|
Former prosecutor Ronald Goldstock and defense attorney Gerald Lefcourt debate the pros and cons of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, a landmark law used to prosecute the mafia.
|
|
|
Gerald B. Lefcourt,
a prominent attorney with a private practice in New York, was president of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers from 1997-98 and the founder of the New York State Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. He is also a past president of the New York Criminal Bar Association.
|
|
|
|
|
Host Margot Adler speaks with veteran prosecutor Robert Blakey, who wrote much of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act.
|
G. Robert Blakey,
considered the nation's foremost authority on the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act (RICO), is the William and Dorothy O'Neill Professor of Law at Notre Dame Law School. Blakey's extensive legislative drafting experience resulted in the passage of the Crime Control Act of 1973, the Omnibus Crime Control Act of 1970 and the Organized Crime Control Act of 1970, Title IX of which is known as RICO.
|
|
|
|
|
Host Margot Adler talks with Matt Heron about the FBI’s efforts to fight organized crime.
|
Matt Heron
oversees the FBI's national organized crime program. He previously ran the FBI’s organized crime unit in New York.
|
|
|
|
|
Reporter Steve Mencher files a story from Langley Park, Maryland, where prosecutors are using RICO, a law originally designed to fight the mob, to go after a violent gang called MS-13.
How did the MS-13 gang get its name?
MS is for "Mara Salvatrucha." The word mara means gang in Salvadoran slang and is taken from marabunta, the name of a fierce type of ant. "Salvatrucha" is a combination of Salvadoran and trucha, a Salvadoran slang word for being alert, usually entailing preparedness for crime or abuse from police.
And the "13?"
According to Newsweek magazine - 13 is a gang number associated with Southern California. And some reports say that new gang recruits are beaten up by three or more gang members for 13 seconds as part of their initiation.
|
photo of MS-13
gang graffiti in Montgomery County, Maryland.
|
|
|
|
|
Host Margot Adler talks with William Oldham and Guy Lawson. They wrote The Brotherhoods: The True Story of Two Cops Who Murdered for the Mafia.
|
William Oldham
is a decorated 20-year veteran of the NYPD and a retired investigator for the U.S. Department of Justice.
|
|
|
Guy Lawson
is an award-winning investigative journalist whose articles on war, crime, culture and law have been published widely.
|
|
|
|
|