meta_pixel
Tapesearch Logo
Log in
Gangland Wire

Boston Organized Crime with Emily Sweeney

Gangland Wire

Gary Jenkins: Mafia Detective

True Crime, Documentary, Society & Culture, History

4.6 • 623 Ratings

🗓️ 16 October 2019

⏱️ 57 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Don’t forget to hit me up on Vemno at ganglandwire and buy me a cup of coffee to help with expenses. This is a republished story from November 2018 to finish out our month on the New England Organized Crime scene. Boston Globe Reporter Emily Sweeney has covered it all as a reporter and blogger. In her spare time, she has written two books on the history of organized crime in the Boston area. Emily covers local news and writes the “Blotter Tales” column for the Globe. A native of the area, she was born in Dorchester, graduated from Northeastern University and played on NU’s championship-winning women’s ice hockey team. Emily has been on the Boston Globe staff since 2001. She currently serves on the board of directors for the New England First Amendment Coalition (NEFAC) and the New England Society of News Editors (NESNE). Emily’s first book is titled Boston Organized Crime and contains many rare photographs from Boston organized crime history. Learn about all the bookies and loan sharks, gangsters and wiseguys, hoodlums and hitmen from New England. Emily’s book documents famous Boston crimes and criminals from the Great Brink’s Robbery, Charlie “King” Solomon and his death inside the Cotton Club in Roxbury and Blackfriars Massacre, where authorities found five gangsters men dead, slumped a card game in a cramped basement office. In Boston Organized Crime, true crime author and reporter Emily Sweeney takes the reader on a dark path looking at Boston’s famous crimes and criminals. using her exclusive access to a rare collection of crime scene photographs, mug shots, and police documents. This book reveals the places and people who set the scene for the modern rise of Whitey Bulger. Emily’s second book, Gangland Boston chronicles Boston’s organized crime from the La Cosa Nostra and prohibition-era Irish gangs to the rise of Whitey Bulger. Boston gangsters have played a major role in shaping the area’s history. Gangland Boston is packed with photos and Sweeney reveals the hidden history of the time when the North End was wrought with gun violence and  Hanover Street was a  virtual shooting gallery. A time when Mickey the Wiseguy ruled the underworld. Sweeney writes how gang violence unfolded during Prohibition and the Italian mafia rise to power. She documents the development of the major Irish gang, the Gustin Gang and the reader learns the little known fact that the leader of the Gustin Gang was an Olympic athlete? As a bonus for Boston residents or mob fans that may visit Boston, Sweeney’s book contains the exact addresses where mobsters lived, worked, and played around Greater Boston Don’t forget to listen to Aaron on the Big Dumb Fun Show. To go to the Gangland wire store click here To rent Gangland Wire, the documentary, click here To subscribe on iTunes click here

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Hi, this is Joan Renner from deranged LA Crimes in Los Angeles, California, and you're listening

0:07.8

to Gangland Wire.

0:11.4

Former Kansas City Police Department Intelligence Detective and now attorney Gary Jenkins

0:18.7

produced four documentary films films most recently Gangland

0:23.7

Wire creator of smartphone app entitled Kansas City Mob Tours download it now

0:29.8

if you like what you hear go to ganglandwire dot com navigate to the shop page we

0:37.4

need you to put a hit out on our

0:39.3

donate button gangland wire true crime stories is produced at the big dumb fun show

0:46.8

studio four and now here's Gary Jenkins well evening, all you wiretappers out there.

0:56.2

Welcome to the fabulous old ice house, a classic old building here in Midtown, Kansas City,

1:02.7

within blocks of many mob hits over the years.

1:06.4

I'm here in the studio with my good friend, Aaron.

1:08.9

Say hello, Aaron.

1:10.4

Hello, Aaron. Hello, Aaron.

1:11.9

Well, folks, tonight we have one more in our ongoing series, the media and the mob.

1:18.4

This week, we're going back east to Boston, and we have on the line Emily Sweeney from the Boston Globe.

1:25.8

Hello, Amy, good to have you here.

1:29.0

Hey, thanks for having me. I appreciate it. Gary, hey, Aaron.

1:32.6

Hey, thanks for being here. Yeah, we really appreciate it. This has been a fun series.

1:37.5

We had an old-timer bulldog John Drummond from Chicago. Boy, did he have some stories.

1:43.2

As you can well imagine, he started in the 50s and just recentlymond from Chicago. Boy, did he have some stories. As you can well imagine, he started

1:45.1

in the 50s and just recently retired from it. We had a guy from Kansas City who actually, you know,

...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Gary Jenkins: Mafia Detective, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Gary Jenkins: Mafia Detective and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.

Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.