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How Did Vito Genovese Take Over The Mafia?
Aug 30, 2025
He wanted the throne. He got the spotlight instead. This is the untold, unflinching story of Vito Genovese—the ruthless mastermind who tried to become “boss of all bosses,” toppled New York’s power balance, and accidentally triggered the FBI’s war on the Mafia. From Lucky Luciano’s inner circle to the Costello hit, the barbershop murder of Albert Anastasia, the Apalachin disaster, and the 1959 narcotics conviction—witness the audacity, the bodies, and the consequences. 👑🔥 What you’ll see inside: - From Naples to the Lower East Side: how a teenage immigrant learned to rule with violence - The Luciano years: Masseria’s downfall and the birth of the modern Commission - Exile in Fascist Italy: favors for Mussolini, WW2 black markets, and a deadly witness - The Prime Minister vs. Don Vito: Costello rivalry, Willie Moretti “mercy” hit, and the Majestic shooting - “Lord High Executioner” falls: the barbershop assassination of Albert Anastasia - Apalachin, 1957: the day the Mafia ran through the woods—and the FBI finally looked up - Heroin pipelines and a federal takedown: the 1959 conviction that ended Genovese’s run - Legacy: how one man’s ambition exposed the Mob and helped reshape law enforcement Why this matters: - The real blueprint behind Goodfellas-era power plays - How one summit in upstate NY forced the FBI to admit a national syndicate existed - The hidden cost of narcotics money: longer sentences, more informants, and the end of invisibility Join the debate: Did Genovese build the empire—or break it by dragging it into the light? Was his push into narcotics genius or the beginning of the end? Drop your take below. 👇
View Video Transcript
0:00
Imagine a world where power is absolute and betrayal is a daily occurrence.
0:05
Where the difference between a handshake and a hit can be a single quiet nod.
0:10
Where brains and brutality don't cancel each other out, they multiply. Welcome
0:17
to the story of Vto Genevves, the immigrant boy who set his sights on the
0:22
highest throne in the American underworld, who tried to resurrect the mantle of Capo Duty, the boss of all
0:30
bosses, and who helped transform both the mafia and the government forces determined to bring it down. Was he a
0:37
mastermind, a butcher, or somehow both? Let's pull back the curtain and let's start at the beginning. He arrives from
0:43
Naples at 15. One more face in a tide of Italian families spilling into New York
0:49
City at the turn of the 20th century. The Lower East Side doesn't welcome, it
0:54
tests. Tenement hallways sweat in the summer, radiators bang in the winter,
1:00
and the streets write their own rules. If you learn to read that language, you
1:06
survive. If you learn to speak it, you rise. For veto, violence isn't a last
1:13
resort. It's a first vocabulary. Police records stack up over a decade.
1:18
Shootings in Queens, a grizzly slaying in Brooklyn, beatings used as punctuation marks in arguments that
1:26
never needed words. Was that nature or training in alleyways where fists and
1:32
pistols spoke louder than teachers? Did the boy become the man? Or was he
1:38
already halfway there? Even love or what passed for it fits the logic of the
1:43
streets. Accounts tell of a woman named Anna already married and a husband who
1:50
became an inconvenience. A rooftop becomes a courtroom without a judge. A fall becomes a sentence without
1:58
appeal. Was it passion or just policy? The ruthless arithmetic of a man who
2:04
solved every problem the same way. Yet, the underworld doesn't reward muscle
2:09
alone. It values usefulness, precision, a talent for turning chaos into order.
2:17
That's where the path bends into destiny. Enter Charles Lucky Luchiano.
2:23
Brilliant, pragmatic, the architect of the modern American mafia. In Luchiano's
2:29
world, a man like Veto Genevvesi is more than muscle. He's an asset. He's the
2:35
hand you trust in the dark. By 1931, Veto is at the side of the man remaking
2:43
the map. New York's old feud, the Castellamares War, is ending. And with
2:48
it, the feudal title that had crowned and cursed mob bosses for years. Capo
2:54
Dutappy, the boss of bosses. Luchiano's answer to
3:00
endless war is structure. Five families, a commission. Rules that prioritize
3:06
business over ego. But even as the title is abolished on paper, the hunger it fed
3:12
doesn't vanish. And a man like Veto, he doesn't stop reaching when a door locks.
3:18
He looks for a window. Stories place him among the gunman who sealed the fate of
3:24
Jeppe Joe, the boss, Maseria, Luchiano's rival, shot down at a Coney Island
3:30
restaurant. Whether he fired the shots or guarded the door, the message was the
3:36
same. A new era had begun and Veto Genevves was inside the room where
3:42
history changed. Then in 1936, the empire wobbles. Luchiano is convicted in
3:49
a sweeping vice case and handed a paper sentence of 50 years. A vacuum opens.
3:56
Veto's eyes go to the center of the map. The head of the family now poised to
4:02
bear his name. But the past reaches back. An old murder becomes new again. A
4:08
witness emerges. A rigged card game. A demand for a bigger cut. A man dead at
4:15
the command of someone who wanted no disscent at his table. The witness, Peter Latte, names Vto Geneovves.
4:23
If you're standing on the edge of a throne and the floor buckles, what do you do? If you're Genevves, you take the
4:30
same route you've always taken. You move faster than anyone expects. He flees to
4:36
Italy, to the country he left as a teenager, now gripped by a regime that's
4:41
rewriting the rule book even more brutally than New York ever did. In
4:46
Mussolini's Italy, the Sicilian mafia is an enemy of the state. The fascists see
4:53
it as a rival power and crush it where they can. But Veto Genevvesi is
4:58
adaptable. He makes himself useful. Reports and testimony would later claim
5:03
he gave money to public works, backed regime projects, and turned his influence into favors. One story says he
5:12
arranged the murder of an anti-fascist journalist in New York who criticized Mussolini, an ocean spanning favor he
5:20
could call in from his old life to cement his position in the new one. For
5:25
his trouble, he gets an Italian honor. Was it admiration or insurance? In a
5:31
world where loyalty is exchanged like currency, what does a medal really buy?
5:36
Then the world explodes. World War II shatters the old lines. In 1943, the
5:44
Allies land in Sicily. The fascist grip loosens and breaks. And Vto Geneovves
5:50
does what he's always done. He turns the page before anyone else. He becomes an
5:55
interpreter for the US military. A helpful face in a place suddenly friendly to his old country and his new
6:03
identity. But behind the smile and the helpful translations, a different economy hums. The black market blooms in
6:10
ruined cities. Food, fuel, uniforms, anything with value moves. From supply lines to street corners, through hands
6:16
that know exactly how to open doors. Corrupt officers can be tempted. Desperate civilians can be sold hope.
6:23
The war makes everyone a buyer and veto makes himself the man with stock. But
6:29
New York remembers. In 1944, American authorities catch him in Naples
6:35
and bring him back to face the murder he ran from. It looks like a final act,
6:40
except the witness, Peter Latte, dies suddenly in protective custody. The
6:46
toxicology report is shocking. enough sedatives in his system to stop a stable
6:51
of horses. With no witness, the case collapses. In court, a judge all but
6:58
says the quiet part aloud. If there were any corroboration, you'd be finished.
7:04
But there isn't. And just like that, the door opens. Veto walks. Freedom doesn't
7:11
come with a crown. While Genevvesi was away, Frank Costello turned the family
7:17
into something smoother, more politically connected, less bloody at the edges, and more profitable at the
7:24
center. Castello calls himself a businessman and proves it. He took one
7:30
stint in jail for a gun in 1915 and learned the lesson most men never do.
7:37
Intelligence is cheaper than intimidation. Slot machines become pipelines. So many one-armed bandits
7:44
ringing in back rooms and corner stores that the daily take reaches half a million dollars during the peak. Mayors
7:52
know his name. Judges return his calls. Candidates from the Democratic Party
7:58
line up to kiss the ring. The press christens him the prime minister of the
8:04
underworld. So, how do you unmake a king who rules with addresses and
8:09
appointments rather than bullets? You go where he isn't. While Costello smooths
8:15
handshakes in Midtown, Veto shakes hands in the neighborhoods where soldiers eat,
8:22
where Kappos count envelopes and look for respect. He plays to the base. He
8:28
tells buttonmen that the man on top hasn't forgotten what it means to be one of them. He speaks the old language. And
8:36
then in 1950, the United States turns its camera toward the shadow. Senator
8:43
Estus Kev opens hearings into organized crime. The nation watches criminals,
8:50
cops, and politicians squirm under questions. Some men plead the fifth
8:56
until their throats go dry. Frank Costello goes a different way. He sits.
9:02
He answers. He smolders. When asked what he's done for his country, his answer is
9:08
small for a man of his size. I pay my taxes. It lands like a confession of
9:14
contempt. He storms out, claims the press, and the probing are driving him
9:20
to a mental fog, waves a doctor's note. The country sees the prime minister
9:26
flinch. The Justice Department sees an opening. Indictments follow for tax
9:31
evasion and lying to Congress. The old aura dims. Is this the moment Veto
9:38
decides to move, or is it simply the moment the world gives him permission to do what he's been planning all along?
9:45
Either way, he moves. In 1951, he sets his sights on Willie Moretti, Castello's
9:53
right hand, a New Jersey rakateeer with 60 soldiers and a reputation that could
9:59
fill a room. He's not just powerful, he's personal. Years earlier, when
10:05
Moretti was elevated to under boss, Veto was demoted. The resentment curdled,
10:11
then hardened. Syphilis has begun to erode Moretti's mind. Genevves frames
10:17
the illness as a threat, not to Moretti, but to everyone he knows. What if he
10:23
talks? Under the rules of the commission, the governing body that Luchiano designed in 1931 to flatten
10:31
boss wars and force consensus. No one at that level dies without a vote. Genevves
10:38
wins one. It is sold as a mercy killing. It functions as a chess move. Moretti is
10:44
shot and killed. The board changes, but still Frank Costello breathes and he
10:51
breathes with a friend named Albert Anastasia. A name whispered like a
10:57
superstition. Anastasia, the Lord High Executioner, who once helped run Murder
11:03
Inc. commands a family and a fear that stretches into every burrow. As long as
11:09
Anastasia stands beside Costello, the road is a minefield. Genovves tries the
11:15
front door anyway. May 2nd, 1957. Costello finishes dinner and rides back
11:22
to his apartment at the Majestic on Central Park West. He's 66, in decline,
11:30
but unafraid. He travels light. No platoon of bodyguards.
11:36
If they're going to kill you, he's known to say, that's the first ones they'll bribe. A boxer turned enforcer waits in
11:43
the lobby. Vincent Chin Gigante, a future boss who will one day pretend madness so convincingly that New Yorkers
11:50
will call him the odd father as he shuffles in a bathrobe through Greenwich Village. On this night, he is young,
11:56
focused, and armed. This is for you, Frank. The shot grazes Costello's head.
12:01
Blood flows. The old boss staggers, but lives. A doorman points a finger. The
12:06
cops make an arrest. In court, the code holds. Costello refuses to identify his
12:13
shooter. Gigante walks free and in a moment that belongs in a theater shakes
12:19
Costello's hand outside the courthouse. Thanks, Frank. Gratitude or humiliation
12:25
politely accepted. Genevves still needs to do the thing everyone says is
12:30
impossible. Remove Albert Anastasia. A frontal attack on Anastasia's fortress
12:37
is fantasy, but families, even criminal ones, are built on rivalries, ambitions,
12:43
and the ancient desire to move up a step. Veto finds his lever. Carlo
12:49
Gambino, Anastasia's calculating lieutenant. Together, they plot a coup.
12:56
October 25th, 1957. The Park Sheran Hotel in Midtown Manhattan. Anastasia
13:03
settles into a barber's chair. The bodyguards step away. Two men in scarves
13:08
step in. The mirrors explode with gunfire. The boss slumps, then falls,
13:14
dead on a tile floor. New York gasps. The balance of power tips. With Costello
13:20
wounded and Anastasia gone, the last barricade falls. Now the consolidation.
13:26
Genevves strips Costello of his rackets in New York, Florida, Las Vegas, and the
13:32
Caribbean. He grants a reprieve life on the condition that Costello exits the
13:38
life. Frank accepts the terms. He retires. Veto Genevves declares himself
13:44
head of the family that will forever after carry his name. It is the peak. It
13:50
should feel like triumph. But peaks are windy places and the higher you stand,
13:55
the more lights find you. The other bosses don't cheer. They watch and
14:01
worry. Not only has Genevves moved without full consensus, he is also
14:06
leaning into narcotics at a moment when the federal government is raising the price of that business. Heroin is money.
14:14
Yes, it's also heat. New laws are lengthening sentences. Informants are
14:20
multiplying. Do the math. More money plus more fear equals more betrayal. Is
14:26
the risk worth the reward? Veto thinks yes. Many of his peers think no. To
14:32
settle the unease, Genevies proposes a grand gesture, a national summit to
14:38
steady the ship, to bless a new era, to show the country that the families are
14:43
united and disciplined. The choice of venue is a quiet boast, not a city, not
14:50
a club. A country estate in a little town called Appalachin,
14:55
180 mi northwest of New York City, where a host named Joseph Barbara has a lawn
15:01
big enough to land a small army of Cadillacs. November 14th, 1957.
15:09
The cars roll in from New York, Chicago, Buffalo, Cleveland, Florida. From Italy
15:15
and Cuba, more than 60 bosses, conciglieri and captains, each with
15:22
drivers and bodyguards, roll onto that hill. Security, they think, is
15:27
seclusion. What they forget is that small towns notice big patterns.
15:33
Detective Sergeant Ed Cwell of the New York State Police has been watching Barbara for a while. He sees the motel
15:40
bookings escalate. He hears about an absurd order at a grocery supplier. 20
15:47
of steak, 20 of ve cutlets, £15 of cold cuts. He watches license plates that
15:55
don't belong on those roads briefly gleam in the sun. He calls for backup.
16:00
The roadblocks go up like a trap sprung. Panic erupts on manicured grass. Men who
16:06
run empires in Brooklyn and the Bronx scramble into hedges. Handmade shoes
16:13
slide in wet leaves. Expensive suits snag on branches. Patrol cars box in
16:19
driveways. Troopers slap cuffs on dozens. Bosses under bosses advisers.
16:25
Others sprint into the woods and vanish. The explanations come quick and silly. A
16:31
barbecue, a sick friend, a social call. No one believes them. Arrests lead to
16:38
indictments. Some convictions that will be overturned on appeal, but in a way
16:43
that matters. The facts are permanent. The nation sees them all together. For
16:49
the first time, the mafia is no longer a rumor or a cluster of local legends. It
16:57
is a national network, and the FBI can't pretend otherwise. J. Edgar Hoover had
17:04
for years downplayed the idea of a nationwide syndicate, preferring to
17:09
fight bank robbers and communists. Appalachin breaks that stance. Files
17:15
open, programs begin. The FBI builds what it calls the top hoodlm program,
17:22
starts tracking leaders in every city, and teams up with the Federal Bureau of Narcotics to follow heroin from the
17:29
poppy fields and ports to American neighborhoods. Wire taps go up, informants multiply.
17:36
The era of national systematic pressure begins. Genevves wanted recognition. He
17:41
got it from the government, from the press, from every hungry prosecutor who needed a name that would make headlines
17:46
and careers. Was the summit audacious, an attempt at statesmanship, or reckless, a flare fired straight up in a
17:53
dark sky? In the months that follow, the narcotics investigators make their push.
17:59
Couriers are rolled up, chemists cut deals, middlemen are squeezed.
18:04
Conspiracies are drawn on chalkboards, names pinned with string. Genevves
18:10
denies everything. He calls the accusations ridiculous, insists he is
18:15
not a drug dealer, and paints himself as a businessman unfairly targeted. A
18:22
federal jury disagrees. In 1959, Veto Geneovves is convicted of
18:28
conspiring to traffic heroin and cocaine into the United States. 15 years, a
18:35
$20,000 fine. The man who wanted to be the first among equals or more than
18:41
equal goes to prison. From behind bars, he tries to rule. Messages travel
18:48
through lawyers, through visitors, through coded phrases that sound like benal instructions, but carry decisions.
18:56
The family remains powerful. The revenue streams don't close overnight. But the
19:02
world is changing around him. The government is learning his language. Laws are coming. Tools that will in time
19:10
let prosecutors charge the bosses for the crimes committed at their command.
19:15
By the time those laws have names, RICO, the rakateeer influenced and corrupt
19:20
organizations act, Veto will be gone. He dies in 1969 in federal custody. The
19:28
empire he helped build lives on. The name stays on the family, but the
19:34
invisibility he relied on is gone forever. Let's step back and trace the
19:40
ark because the ark matters. An immigrant boy learns that violence
19:45
answers questions faster than words. He finds a patron with vision and becomes
19:50
indispensable. He runs when the law corners him, then reappears when the world has changed. He
19:59
forces an old rival into retirement with a bullet and removes a protector with a
20:05
coup. He crowns himself and calls the nation's bosses to the countryside to
20:10
bless it. He stares down the government in court and loses. He runs his world
20:16
from a cell until the end. What drove him? Was it ambition, the pure, cold
20:23
kind that doesn't recognize enough when it sees it? Was it fear of being
20:28
overlooked, outmaneuvered, replaced? Was it the unkillable idea that a man with
20:35
both brains and muscle should sit alone at the top? No commission, no equals,
20:41
just the echo of his own orders in the room. And what did it cost? Look at the
20:46
wake. Frank Costello, the prime minister, humiliated on national television. His aura punctured, his
20:54
power ending with a graze and a bargain. Albert Anastasia executed in a
21:01
barberhop. His life reduced to a grizzly shortorthhand that still circulates in
21:06
whispers. Willie Moretti taken out under the banner of mercy. His illness used as
21:13
rationale and precedent. Dozens of bosses in fine suits sprinting into the
21:19
woods in Appalachin. Their dignity left on fences. Their secrecy shattered by a
21:25
detective who noticed grocery orders and motel registries. Heroin flowing into American cities,
21:33
turning street corners into hunts, feeding a market that hurt the very communities these men claimed to
21:40
protect. And then the equal and opposite reaction. A government that finally
21:45
knows what it's looking at. Armed with new laws and old patience, prepared to
21:51
stare down an entire subculture until the first crack appears and then widen
21:57
it into a chasm. Here's a question the story forces us to ask. Did Veto
22:03
Genevves build an empire? Or did he by sheer force of personality and impatience pull the curtain back on a
22:11
world that survives only in shadow? When he tried to become the boss of bosses in
22:17
a system designed to reject that very title, did he resurrect a rivalry the
22:22
commission was born to bury? And when he pushed narcotics as a path to riches,
22:28
did he sell not just drugs but the future? Trading wealth now for heat
22:34
forever. Consider the psychology. Genevves learned early that certainty
22:39
wins. In a back room, in an alley, in a meeting where rumors gallop like horses,
22:46
the man who speaks last and moves first keeps friends and makes enemies too
22:52
afraid to act. Magnify that across decades and you get this story. A man
22:58
who rarely backs down, who sees hesitation as a disease, who uses
23:03
respect and fear as interchangeable tools, and believes that the difference
23:08
between them is academic. Now, think about Frank Costello, the foil, a man
23:13
who learned another lesson. That the right dinner handshakes can turn cops into allies, not obstacles. that the
23:19
right judges can turn a courtroom into a hallway, not a destination. That violence costs money and invites heat,
23:26
while policy creates profit and cools the temperature. Which strategy wins?
23:32
For a while, Castello's path looks like the future. The prime minister, a hybrid
23:38
of crime and civic influence. Then Keva calls him to a televised confession
23:44
disguised as a hearing, and the whole illusion collapses. Was Castello out of
23:50
touch with the new media reality? Or was he in his own way as stubborn as veto,
23:55
unwilling to bend because he didn't believe the world could force him? Then there's the question of rules. The
24:03
commission exists so no one becomes king. So no Willie Moretti dies without
24:08
a vote. So no Albert Anastasia falls without a calculus that protects the
24:13
house. Genevvesa uses the rules to make his moves, then breaks them when the
24:19
votes don't go his way. It works until it doesn't. The very system he
24:25
undermines is the one thing that could have insulated him from the attention he
24:31
ultimately draws. Would patience have saved him or just delayed him? If you're
24:37
watching this and you've been nodding along, here's another angle.
24:42
No underworld exists untouched by the world above it. The gray space between
24:48
politics, business, and crime isn't just a shadow. It's a marketplace.
24:53
Men like Costello and Genevves negotiated its terms. Costello did it in
24:59
private clubs with good scotch and better tailoring. Veto did it with
25:04
rallies, ribb dinners, and road maps of envelopes. Each method carried risks. One drew the
25:12
anger of Senate committees and journalists. The other drew the attention of narcotics agents whose
25:18
patience is measured in years, not weeks. Let's walk through a few moments
25:24
slowly because details matter in history and in crime. Picture the Majestic's
25:30
lobby on that night in May 1957. It's late. The doorman notices a tall
25:37
young man who isn't a resident, eyes like ice under a cap. Costello, set in
25:44
his routines, moves with the unconcern of a man who's escaped worse. The gun's
25:50
report is smaller than you think in a place with carpets and curtains. Blood
25:56
glints black in the lobby's sheen. The Dorman's description is clean. Later in
26:02
court, a single nod from Costello could connect a line between gun and boss. He
26:08
refuses. Is that courage code or both? Years later, that shooter Vincent
26:15
Jagante will shuffle through streets in a bathrobe. A performance that keeps him
26:20
free while those who know his mind know the act is all show. The underground
26:26
runs on memory. The above ground runs on appearances. Gigante mastered both. Now
26:33
step into the park sheritan's barber shop. The bustle outside, the gentle clatter of scissors, the trusting tilt
26:40
of a man who thinks he's alone for a minute. Two men enter, practiced and
26:46
faceless. The mirrors erupt. The chair becomes a coffin. The message, "No place
26:53
is safe if your enemies have patience and partners. Now climb the hill at
26:59
Appalachin. You've driven past cows and fences and kids on bikes. You're at the
27:05
top of the pyramid and you look around and see men who control unions, ports,
27:11
precincts, even movie studios by rumor and leverage. Then you see blue lights
27:17
at the bottom of the drive. The air goes thin. Men who never run. Shoes designed
27:24
for marble floors slide on wet grass. It's a scene you don't forget because it
27:30
violates the mythology. Kings don't sprint, except that day they did. And
27:36
finally, sit in the federal courtroom in 1959. Watch a jury glance at a man who looks
27:43
like a grandfather and hears words like heroin, conspiracy, importation. Here
27:50
the prosecutors connect dots across oceans. Watch the defense insist it's all fiction. Then feel the air still as
27:58
the foreman reads the verdict. What goes through a man's mind when the one thing
28:03
he can't manipulate time turns against him? If you spend your life in control,
28:09
how do you endure a cell? The conclusion of this story isn't a neat moral. It's a
28:15
knot. Because the world Veto Genevvesi helped create, the world he wanted to
28:20
dominate, didn't die with him. The Genevese family remains a name that law
28:25
enforcement circles on maps. The rackets, gambling, lone sharking,
28:30
construction kickbacks didn't vanish. But something did change in a way that
28:36
matters if you're trying to understand cause and effect. The government learned
28:42
to see and then to act. Appalachin flipped a switch. The key for hearings
28:47
broke an illusion. The narcotics trials built a ladder that later prosecutors climbed all the way up. If you're
28:53
looking for unintended consequences, start there. The man who craved the most power may have done more than anyone to
28:59
make that power visible and therefore vulnerable. So, what do we take from all this? First, that brutality without
29:08
strategy burns hot and fast. It makes a name. It builds a legend and it leaves a
29:14
trail that eventually leads back to your door. Second, that strategy without
29:21
humility breeds carelessness. It talks on television when silence is wiser. It
29:28
believes that the old understanding can survive in a new world with cameras.
29:33
Third, that the true currency in any clandestine system isn't money or fear.
29:39
It's invisibility. Once you lose it, the countdown begins. Was Vto Genevves
29:46
inevitable? A creature shaped by tenementss, bootleg wars, and the cold
29:51
logic of survival? Or was he unique, an intelligence fused with appetite so
29:57
perfectly that no rules, no systems, no fellow bosses could restrain him until
30:03
the only restraint left was a cell door? Ask yourself one final question. In a
30:10
world where power is absolute and betrayal is a daily occurrence, what haunts a man like that more? The enemies
30:17
he can see or the consequences he [Music]