National Crime Syndicate
Type of criminal organizationWikipedia
14
MENTIONS
9
EPISODES
8
PODCASTS
Search complete. 14 mentions across 9 episodes found for "National Crime Syndicate".
Oct 10, 2026
Simon WhistlerHOST
Working together, Luciano and Lansky enacted a revolution within the American mob, one that saw numerous Italian and Jewish factions from all over the country band together in order to maximize their profits and minimize in-house fighting, which was bad for business.
Simon WhistlerHOST
This was accomplished by establishing the National Crime Syndicate, where the decisions were made by The Commission, a group that represented the interests of all of the members instead of a single man, commonly referred to as the boss of all bosses.
Simon WhistlerHOST
The birth of The Commission was an important landmark in the history of the mafia, one that changed forever how organized crime operated in America.
Simon WhistlerHOST
It was mainly the brainchild of Lucky Luciano, who went on to become The Commission's first chairman.
Sean WilliamsHOST
This he'll present as gifts to the underworld figures now camped out in Cuba's capital.
Sean WilliamsHOST
Chief among them, Lucky Luciano, the chief architect of the National Crime Syndicate, prosecuted and deported to Italy under a year previous.
Sean WilliamsHOST
That's still where cops think Luciano is, living out his life in the quiet in a Sicilian village.
Sean WilliamsHOST
But he's here in Cuba, hanging out at a seaside mansion and receiving tribute like a medieval king.
17 MINS LATER
Sean WilliamsHOST
Dick.
Danny GoldHOST
[laughs]
Sean WilliamsHOST
Meyer Lansky, a king of the US underworld who has just formed a national crime syndicate with his pal Charles "Lucky" Luciano, arrives in Havana with an astounding proposition for a young man who is on the up and up in Cuban politics.
Danny GoldHOST
Yeah, we did an episode on that syndicate, uh, like, I think through the lens of Murder, Inc., but with Lucky and, and Meyer.
speaker_1HOST
Exactly.
speaker_1HOST
By the 1940s and '50s, the leaders of the National Syndicate realized that public violence was just terribly bad for business.
speaker_1HOST
It drew the FBI, it drew the IRS.
speaker_0HOST
It messed with the bottom line.
Catherine Austin FittsGUEST
I would say one of the most important pieces is that there, there are several strains to the psychopathy, and one of the strains we're dealing right now with, that everybody's afraid to deal with, is the Israeli psychopathy.
Catherine Austin FittsGUEST
So, you know, if you look at what happened when we passed the '47 and '49 Act, I believe that the way we got the '49 act passed, there were three different groups in the National Crime Syndicate, and one was the Jewish, uh, line, another was the Catholic line, and the other was the WASP line, and they, they were part of syndicate together.
Catherine Austin FittsGUEST
They collaborated.
Catherine Austin FittsGUEST
And I think what you've seen in America since that time is the Jewish, uh, group and the Protestant group kind of team up, squeeze out the Catholics.
Catherine Austin FittsGUEST
First, I recommend the books of Whitney Webb.
Catherine Austin FittsGUEST
Whitney Webb has tied Epstein into a portion of what I would describe as the National Crime Syndicate and the evolution of all sorts of, you know, what I would call the financial coup.
Catherine Austin FittsGUEST
And she has really described Epstein's role as part of engineering a financial coup in America, right? And, um, part of this was helping to develop, uh, the crypto prototypes you needed to figure out how to do programmable money.
Catherine Austin FittsGUEST
And there's a wonderful Substack called Escape Key that describes the, Epstein's role in helping to build the prototyping in Bitcoin and other kinds of crypto to get the whole programmable money thing figured out.
Catherine Austin FittsGUEST
First, I recommend the books of Whitney Webb.
Catherine Austin FittsGUEST
Whitney Webb has tied Epstein into a portion of what I would describe as the National Crime Syndicate and the evolution of all sorts of, you know, what I would call the financial coup.
Catherine Austin FittsGUEST
And she has really described Epstein's role as part of engineering a financial coup in America, right? And, um, part of this was helping to develop, uh, the crypto prototypes you needed to figure out how to do programmable money, and there's a wonderful Substack called Escape Key that describes the, Epstein's role in helping to build the prototyping in Bitcoin and other kinds of crypto to get the whole programmable money thing figured out.
Catherine Austin FittsGUEST
And, um, he was deeply involved.
Simon WhistlerHOST
Luigi worked as a laborer while Maria opened a store selling traditional Italian products.
Simon WhistlerHOST
Back then, the National Crime Syndicate was still a long way away, but local crime bosses still existed who mainly controlled the rackets within an individual neighborhood.
Simon WhistlerHOST
Frank Costello's first experience with the criminal underworld may have been a woman named Pasquerella Spinelli.
Simon WhistlerHOST
She operated a horse stable near where the Costellos lived, but she mainly used it as a front for buying and selling stolen horses.
Simon WhistlerHOST
Their biggest problems came from some of their bosses who were stuck in the old ways of doing things.
Simon WhistlerHOST
The Calabrians didn't think Costello should be doing business with a Sicilian like Luciano or vice versa, let alone both of them working with the Jewish and Irish gangs.
Simon WhistlerHOST
In the late 1920s, the formation of the National Crime Syndicate helped smooth over, somewhat, the working relationships between the multi-ethnic criminal organizations.
Simon WhistlerHOST
But the American Mafia was still in turmoil due to several people vying for the position of Capo dei tutti capi, the boss of all bosses.
TomHOST
Right
speaker_0HOST
... one of the most notorious mobsters and the, the founder of the National Crime Syndicate.
speaker_0HOST
But the, the interest of the hotel industry, the casinos, all of this, Batista made sure that that was in the hands of American mafia.
speaker_0HOST
The same people that owned Las Vegas owned Havana.
Aaron GoodHOST
And in World War II, they partnered with organized crime figures, Meyer Lansky specifically, And at his request, they sprang Lucky Luciano from prison.
Aaron GoodHOST
And so they're basically partnered with the heads of the National Crime Syndicate, which has a de facto monopoly on gambling and drug distribution, narcotics traffic in the United States.
Aaron GoodHOST
And the U.S. has partnered with them to the point that Harry Truman gives Meyer Lansky the Medal of Freedom in 1945.
Aaron GoodHOST
And around the same time, Meyer Lansky is setting up a heroin connection.