The Forgotten Founders: Before Capone, These Men Built Everything

Forget everything you think you know about Mafia origins—the true founders built their empire thirty years before Prohibition, and their names have been deliberately erased from history. This documentary exposes the forgotten architects who created organized crime's foundational structures between 1869 and 1920. We're investigating the men who established the first American crime families, wrote the rules that still govern the underworld, and built systems that made everything from Capone to the Five Families possible. You'll discover how Charles Matranga created labor racketeering on the New Orleans waterfront—and survived America's largest mass lynching. The truth behind Giuseppe Morello's organizational genius that invented family hierarchy. Why Ignazio "The Wolf" Lupo's Black Hand terror campaign created the code of silence that still protects criminals today. How a Sicilian don named Cascio Ferro crossed the Atlantic to teach American criminals about political corruption. And the real story of Salvatore D'Aquila, the first Boss of Bosses whose systems became the Five Families structure. This investigation draws from the earliest federal investigations, Italian immigration records, police archives from New Orleans to New York, and fragmentary testimony from witnesses to the Mafia's birth. Every founder examined. Every origin exposed. For the complete cinematic history of organized crime, explore our 100-episode master series on the main channel, Global Mafia Universe. Link in description. Which founding father do you think deserves more recognition? Drop your pick below. 0:00 The Founders History Forgot 1:25 Why These Names Were Erased 3:15 Charles Matranga: The First American Godfather 6:30 Giuseppe Morello: Creator of Family Structure 9:15 Ignazio Lupo: The Wolf Who Built Terror 12:30 Don Vito Cascio Ferro: The Old World Connection 16:00 Salvatore D'Aquila: The First Boss of Bosses 19:30 The Legacy That Outlasted Fame