Welcome to the Most Notorious Podcast, I'm Eric Rivenes.

Well we've done a bunch of episodes on the Mafia, touching on subjects like the Black Hand,

Ronald Rossstein, Lucky Luciano, Mickey Cohen, Frank the Irishman Sheeran, but we've rarely

mentioned one very important figure in its history.

Frank Costello, who played a vital role in the growth of the mob in the 20th century,

but I'm about to remedy this oversight.

I'm grateful to have his my guest today, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and author, Anthony

de Stefano.

His book Top Houdlum.

Frank Costello, Prime Minister of the Mafia, is our subject today.

I appreciate you so much for coming on to talk about this.

I'm happy to do it.

You've had a pretty amazing career covering organized crime as a reporter.

Would you mind telling us about your personal experience reporting on the Mafia over the

years?

Well yeah, it started in the late 70s covering the Mafia and the garment district in New

York City, where it's usually been traditionally pretty entrenched and broke groundbreaking

series of stories back then.

In what was I guess the sort of beginning of the end of organized crime power in the city,

but still there was still powerful nonetheless.

We get a series of about 10 stories which should have set the standard for reporting at

that time.

...