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CIA, Mob team up to topple Fidel Castro in Paramount Plus docuseries ‘Mafia Spies’

July 29, 2024

The CIA’s alliance with the Mafia during the Kennedy years to assassinate Cuban leader Fidel Castro is at the center of a new Paramount Plus original docuseries called Mafia Spies. Using historical footage and contemporary interviews, the six-part series brings viewers inside 1950s wide-open Havana, when mobsters controlled the Cuban capital’s casinos, and then examines Castro’s takeover of the island nation and the U.S. government’s clandestine efforts to kill him. Among other schemes, including the failed 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion, attempts to eliminate Castro included poison pills and a scuba-diving wetsuit laced with a deadly substance. None of this was successful, ...

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Ninety Years Ago Today, Prohibition Ended at 2:32 p.m. Pacific Time

On Tuesday, December 5, 1933, the unprecedented repeal of a constitutional amendment went into effect, officially relegalizing intoxicating liquors in…

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Artifact Spotlight: Frank Gusenberg’s Colt .38 Special Revolver

This Colt Detective .38 Special was the only firearm found at the crime scene of the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre. This snub-nosed revolver was the go-to sidearm for lawmen and lawbreakers alike.

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John Gotti’s takedown detailed in new Netflix series

A three-part docuseries now available on Netflix examines the dramatic rise and fall of Gambino crime family boss John Gotti…

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Eighty-two years ago this month, Murder Inc.’s Abe Reles took a mysterious fall

Abraham “Kid Twist” Reles’ damning testimony assisted in taking down some of the most vicious Mob enforcers during the sensational…

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Mobsters blamed for Election Day violence in New York City 90 years ago

Before a hotly contested battle for the New York mayor’s office culminated in a big win for a “law and…

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Classic Mob movie ‘Mean Streets’ celebrates 50th anniversary

Martin Scorsese’s Mean Streets, released in October 1973, is regarded as a classic crime drama, depicting a New York City…

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Defiance of Kefauver Committee put Frank Costello behind bars for 14 months

When New York underworld boss Frank Costello famously walked out while being questioned by the Kefauver Committee in 1951, he…

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