It's like, that's like the third time you've played that one.
in the last two nights.
Are you trying to tell me something?
Like, you really think I don't believe in sex after marriage?
Or maybe you don't want
me to ever have sex again, Conrad.
I don't know what it is.
You know, you need to be celibate.
That would help me channel my energies.
Hey, welcome to Night Light, everybody.
Great to have you here.
It is a Tuesday night back on the home court here at WGBW and broadcasting live statewide.
from our gorgeous studios here at City Deck Landing.
So hope you had a great day.
Whatever you did today, it's great to have you.
Let's leave the stress of the day behind and talk about some of the things in life that make us happy, like movies and TV and comedy and the mafia.
We're talking mob tonight.
So we've got two great guests.
A good question.
I know we're going to get great texts like we always do or phone calls.
And together we'll pull this off tonight and make it a great show Bob Dennis is here at 720 tonight Bob is a mob expert and he even podcasts about it that takes guts I've always been afraid to talk too much about the mob because I don't want to be silenced even though I've not or have ever been in the mob You ever been in the mob Conrad you ever done any work gotten sandwiches or coffee mixed drinks for him?
I shouldn't say
Smart.
Because it's the people who claim to be in the mob that are not in the mob.
My life is pretty much a Brock's tale.
I'll say that.
Wow, nice poll.
Great movie.
I could see that.
I could see a young Conrad Krieger.
Was your dad a bus driver?
No.
Great movie though.
We can ask our guest Bob Dennis if he's ever seen that because that is a great movie.
So I'm gonna write that down right now.
Bob will be here at 720 in studio and we'll talk about some great mob bosses.
And when I say great, it's not like I'm condoning the fact that they're mob bosses.
I just mean they are successful at their craft and what they did.
So we're gonna do a deep dive into some New York and Chicago mob bosses.
That is where I would say the mob had most of its action in those two cities over the years.
And Bob will tell us what we need to know and how to avoid.
being recruited by the mob.
Most of you listening probably have not gone a day in your life where someone wasn't trying to bring you into the mafia.
We are going to tell you how to sidestep that and avoid awkwardness.
Also, at 6.35, I'm working my way backwards here tonight, Mike Mercury will be here.
He's a Madison-based stand-up comedian.
This is our second night in a row.
We've had a Madison-based stand-up comic on the show.
That, folks, is what they call radio history.
We had Johnny Bean around last night from Madison.
He came into the studio and tonight, Mike Mercury joins us over the stream at 635.
Mike has a couple new articles I wanna talk about and he says he's got stuff he needs to get off his chest.
So I'm just gonna give Mike the floor.
He's very funny, great writer, great stand-up comic and a very good Wisconsin dude.
He'll be here at 635.
So lots going on in the world of entertainment, in the world of entertainment sports movies.
Two biggies dropped this week.
Sandlot in 1993.
Major League in 1989.
And we have some big news from a friend of ours coming up.
He'll be here Friday.
His name is Sean Hannish, and he directed Just A Bit Outside.
I saw him at the Wisconsin Film Festival with his filmmaking partner, Kelly Call.
And they were, we were just kind of talking and he said, he's got news.
I said, why don't you come on the show Friday?
He said, you got it.
So Sean will be here Friday with news about his film, Just A Bit Outside.
So that's three heavy hitter baseball movies that are relevant this week.
Sandlot, Major League, and Just A Bit Outside.
So are, you know what that leads us to, Conrad?
our question of the night.
What is your favorite baseball movie?
Favorite baseball movie, folks.
8-5-5-7-5-2-4-8-4-2-8-5-5-7-5-CIVIC.
What is your favorite baseball movie?
Baseball season is right around, well, we're in it.
Actually, opening day has already happened at all the major, in all the major cities at the big ball parks.
God, I spaced out there for a minute.
We're already in baseball season.
Yes, we are.
Seems like we should still be building up to it, because it's a damn cold out.
Did you play baseball as a kid like on a team?
Yes, I played from till like Pony League
Was that like 14?
I forget what age I think it's like in middle school.
Okay, but I I played one year of high school baseball and I sucked so I didn't play I didn't play the whole season I
Played freshman year and as a pretty decent hitter and then sophomore year
I quit because I had a bad attitude.
The coach took other sophomores onto the varsity team and I said, hey, I had a pretty high average.
Why wasn't I considered?
And he says, you were considered, which hurt even more.
So I was like, you know what?
I quit.
Actually, I had just gotten a job too.
I wanted money.
I think I was looking for a reason to quit.
And here's why.
Baseball in Wisconsin in the spring sucks.
Practicing every day with aluminum bats when it is 30 degrees outside, it was worse than football practice.
It was horrible.
That sting does not feel
good.
It does not.
And then you're throwing a hardball and catching it in the cold.
It's just awful.
So here's what I say.
Here's the conclusion I've come to.
Had I grown up in Arizona, Texas, Florida, California, I probably would have made the big leagues.
Because I was a pretty
damn good
player.
OK.
You know, I was known for dropping the ball.
So at
least you have a signature move
when they actually put me in the outfield in right field when I was in sophomore year.
I missed the ball, but I threw the guy out in second.
So you made an error, but you
corrected it with a brilliant play.
And I got to hit that game.
Oh, sweet.
And then the next game I quit.
If you went out
on a high note, is that your
plan?
Yeah, I don't even put it on the coach.
I think I wanted a reason to quit, but whatever.
I stuck with basketball because that was the indoor sport, and that's what I liked.
I
didn't
want the activity and the running and all that was fun.
But folks, tonight we're talking baseball.
What is your favorite baseball movie?
You can text us too on the Civic Media app.
Very easy to use.
We love getting texts off the app.
You can go old school phone or on the stream.
So either way, you get ahold of us.
Just get ahold of us because it's more fun when you guys participate.
So I don't know what I'm going to say.
I'm kind of on the fence here between... I probably would have to say The Sandlot.
I liked Major League a lot.
It's a really good comedy.
I don't know that it's a great movie as much as I enjoyed it.
The Sandlot?
Some critics might say that's not a great movie.
I think it's a great movie.
I love the Sandlot.
You got Field of Dreams, Trouble with the Curve.
Oh, I forgot about that one.
What is that?
Trouble with the Curve.
Who's in that movie?
Oh, that's Clint Eastwood.
Oh, yes.
Is that good?
Is that a good movie?
That's a great movie.
Is it really?
Yes.
It's about a guy who was doing, what are they called?
The guys who sell peanuts?
Yeah.
They took them out of the stands and...
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, okay.
Justin Timberlake's in it, John Goodman, okay.
But, you know, let us know, because there's somebody who goes, Moneyball, you got, there's just too many good movies.
The Natural, what do you think?
I got two, actually.
One that's like, it could be considered a baseball movie.
It's called Baseball.
From the South Park guys?
I love that movie so much.
Our friend of the show Mike Schmidt who hasn't been on in a long time, he was an extra in that right when he moved to LA and he was like, he had a really good time.
I've never
seen the movie.
It looks so preposterous.
I just didn't watch it.
And their team is the Milwaukee beers.
It's about two guys who made up a game and it involves a national game.
Yeah, it's so funny.
But I say my actual answer is bench warmers.
Oh, I forgot about that one.
I wouldn't say that was my favorite, but
that's
based on 42.
42 was
good.
I
love that one.
Wow, I forgot.
That's such a great movie.
Yeah.
Did you see Money Ball?
Yes.
Yeah, I love Money Ball too.
I never saw 61. rookie of the year.
Some of these, you know, just have sentimental value.
Yeah.
Like you got Bull Durham.
Bull Durham was a great movie.
I've actually never seen that.
Yeah, you might like it.
It's pretty good.
And then you've got Field of Dreams, obviously.
I never got into the field of dreams like everybody else did.
Not saying it's not a good movie.
I think I heard too much about it before I went to see it.
It was kind of, for me anyway, a little overly sentimental.
But I understand why people like it so much.
Do you remember when we did that baseball quiz with Nicky?
Yeah.
And remember that secret last one that I'd had?
It was Richie Rich.
A
baseball movie?
Because there's that one scene in there where they play baseball and I rewatched it.
Oh, dude, that's not.
And it doesn't hold up at all.
I rewatched it like, how did I like this movie?
This movie is so, it drags, it's boring.
I don't know.
That's funny.
Here's another one.
It's kind of a, I don't, I thought about this earlier.
It's listed on Google as a baseball movie called Stealing Home.
One of my favorite actors, William Peterson.
Jody Foster.
Wait, is this the movie I'm thinking of?
Maybe not.
Bad news bears I love.
I think the original.
Have you seen the original?
Yes, and then the 12 spin-offs.
Yeah.
It's tough to keep them all straight, but I loved the original Walter Mathow.
I love when he asked the kid his name, and the kid says, you know, like Tanner or whatever he's like, okay, Tanner, sit down and shut up.
Great stuff.
I like there's so many good baseball movies.
This is perfect question for tonight.
So let us know folks As I mentioned, we're talking mob stuff at 720 and some comedy with our friend Mike Mercury at 735 Here's what I did.
I was in Madison for like the last six days five days What do you do?
Here's how it was configured
Like everything was like paid for, but I had to tip the valets and I took my car out a lot.
So I probably got set back about 40 bucks in tips over the five days, whatever.
Okay, fine.
I never, there's always two guys.
One of them goes to get the car.
I put the money in the tip jar and the other guy says, thank you.
And then I go out and the guy gives me my car.
I always feel like I have to explain to him, I tipped in there like I don't wanna be.
It's like a George Costanza thing.
So I always made sure.
Like, I did a very exaggerated reach for my money and put it in the tip jar so both of them see it.
You dunked the money.
I did.
I did a 360, actually, just for actual emphasis.
And then I tipped it pot belly today, and I had to clean
off my own table.
Oh, pot belly is so good.
It's great.
And it's so good I even ate among other people's crumbs because the tables were wiped off
after I
tip the counter help.
All right, folks.
What is your favorite baseball movie?
Join the fun.
Be part of Nightlight.
We're lighting it up.
It's Pete Schwabba and Nightlight on the Civic Media Radio
I think Bob was doing a Pete and using voice text because he texted me, he said, hi dad, I'm home at the front door.
Sounds like part of two texts.
I do that all the time.
Hey, welcome back to Nightlight.
This is Pete Schwab.
Great to have you with me on this.
It's not Wednesday.
It's been a long week Tuesday.
I actually got the times wrong.
I'm glad Bob showed up when he did so that's exciting Our question of the night ladies and gentlemen, please be part of the show is Conrad if you would
what is your favorite baseball movie?
Lay it on us.
We'll read your text on the radio You don't get an offer like that very often.
Do you folks going to the social media?
We put this out on social media, too So if you follow the show you'll get these things ahead of time, which is great because then we're all set to read them on the air
So please become a nightlight follower.
Give us a like if you're at it.
If you're on YouTube or Facebook or X Twitter, whatever we love to get likes and we love to get follows.
Mike Desitel says, field of dreams hands down.
Yeah, I kind of, I didn't mean to like downplay field of dreams.
Great movie.
I just, for me, it's a little too sentimental, but I did like it.
Great movie and a phenomenal idea for a movie Todd Michael says major league for yoke and the county stadium alone Hard to argue with that Matt Harper the natural with Robert Redford Hard to argue against the natural too although again That's a very have you seen that I
have not actually
I'd be I'd be curious to know what a young fellow named Conrad thinks of the natural because it's a great movie and
Robert Redford's great, you know, they've got some really good There's some great elements to it, and I did like it overall It's very I think it's a long movie if I remember correctly Amanda Nimmer says oh part of the GBW team baby.
She says angels in the outfield Was that one of the was that film at Wrigley Field?
The rookie of the year was a great choice Amanda.
Thank you Eric Rathsack lead singer of ask your mother
Says hard to decide a favorite major league a league of their own another great movie field of dreams for love of the game and the Sandlot all have a spot for me Yeah, for me it's an easy one I would have to say the Sandlot and That's sentimental too.
I just I buy it.
I love it.
I love the kid angle kids baseball.
I think it's fantastic Thank you for the text Eric Let's go to the text line shall we
We got Christine and Slinger says A League of Their Own.
Another great movie, yes.
We just heard another A League of Their Own text, that's great.
Two in a row.
Steve from Florida says, my all-time favorite baseball movie is The Natural starring Robert Redford.
Although Major League is a close second due to the brilliance of Bob Uker.
Yeah, if you were gonna rate a movie just based on one performance, it would probably be, you know what?
Major League.
And the Sandlot would still be my two favorite, because you got Euker, and then you got Benny the Jet, who's like one of the coolest characters ever.
Great choice, Steve.
Ed from Madison says Conrad should watch Boulderm tonight, and there's an exclamation point.
I gotta get to it then.
I think it's, Ed seems pretty serious.
He's texting with conviction.
He also says a league of their own is his favorite.
A league of their own is in the driver's seat tonight, folks.
Jim from Appleton says, don't forget Angels in the Outfield.
How could we forget that, Jim?
Ed from Madison says, Bull Durham.
Ed from Madison, very active on the text line.
Great to have you part of the show, Ed.
Anna in Madison says, hi, Pete and Conrad, my favorite baseball movie is Bull Durham with Kevin Costner.
Yeah, Bull Durham is like, I bet a lot of people pound for pound would say Bull Durham is the best baseball.
It's a drama.
There's some funny stuff.
Tim Robbins is great.
Can't go wrong with that one though.
Thank you, Anna.
David from Richland Center says, for love of the game, that's, you know, that's one I haven't seen.
And that's the second person that's mentioned that film.
I got to put that on my list.
I think that's also Kevin Costner, if I'm not mistaken.
Great text.
Keep in coming, folks.
What is your favorite baseball movie?
Baseball season is here and two big movies were dropped this week.
The Sandlot in 1993 and just a bit outside.
Major League, which I believe was 89.
Was Major League in 89?
Yes, 1989, my God.
And then we have big news from Sean Hannish, who will be here Friday night at 6.35 to tell us about just a bit outside the documentary, the wildly popular and successful documentary.
There is new streaming information on that, so we'll talk to Sean about that on Friday.
Big baseball week here at Nightlight.
Is today National Zoo Lovers Day?
Yes, it
is.
That's a real thing?
Yeah.
Okay.
Do
you got a favorite animal in the zoo?
You know what I do, but it's kind of like, here's what I equate it to.
Taking a shot and asking the really pretty girl out, and she says yes, and then you don't have a good time.
That's what going to see the lions is like in the zoo.
Lions, yes!
Or polar bears.
And then they just sit there.
Right?
I mean, I like I like the monkeys when they're at there because they're active Always throwing their feces around having a gay old time in there.
However, I don't I mean, I love the polar bears and the lions, but they never do anything
Yeah, there's definitely a moment where it's like it was fun when you're a kid.
Yeah, and then there's one age where it just turns you're like I'm what this is kind of boring
Yeah, because it's unpredictable
And I think, you know, I spent a lot of time when I was younger at the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago, and they have the, what do you call them, the porpoises swimming around.
Oh, sea lions, I'm sorry.
And they put on a big show, and that can be fun.
So there's good stuff there.
Usually you see something that's kind of cool.
And I went to the Milwaukee County Zoo a lot when I was a kid, because my grandparents lived in Milwaukee.
So I spent a lot of time there.
That was a great zoo.
Have you been to that zoo?
Multiple.
Milwaukee is an excellent zoo.
I
actually spent my senior skip day there.
Really?
Playing hooky at the zoo.
Listen, I admire that.
That shows good wholesome, clean fun, because a lot of kids were probably out doing drugs and conreds at the zoo.
The petting zoo, maybe, even.
Yeah, I love zoos.
I really do.
And I love the Milwaukee Zoo.
And I love the Lincoln Park Zoo, because it's free.
You can walk through it on your way home, and you never know what you see.
So that was fun, too.
but National Zoo Day.
Okay, I can get on board with that.
You think zoos are in danger like libraries, because a lot of them are publicly funded?
I don't know.
I hope not.
Yeah, I hope not.
We should organize a nightlight field trip to the zoo.
Who's on board?
Feel free to Texas.
Live from the zoo.
Yeah, now that's a show.
We'll bring out penguins.
Listen,
I will dare the lions to attack me, because that's how lazy they are.
I'm gonna sit right in the middle of the lion cage and do the show.
And if that's how I exit this world, it'll be great radio.
I'll go out on a ratings high note.
What the hell am I talking about until I haven't slept in five days?
All right, Bob Dennis is here, folks.
We're going to talk mafia stuff.
Cool, cool mafia stuff.
He's got some great facts.
He's in the studio here in person.
It's all happening here tonight on Night Light.
And we got some laughs coming up later with Mike Mercury.
It's Pete Schwab and Night Light.
Great to have you here on the Civic Media Radio Network.
Look at
that, our guest.
What is going on with my hair?
Bob Dennis is here in the studio.
Welcome back to Nightlight.
I'm Pete Schwabba.
I love when I have in-studio guests, and I love when they text while they're waiting to come on the air.
And Bob says, bingo, long traveling, all stars.
Star Wars.
Oh, yeah, Billy Dee Williams.
Yeah, he is
I love
Williams.
Christine, did we read Christine from Singer's Text Conrad?
Yeah, so that's... Okay, Al from Jackson says, baseball.
Just kidding, that movie is terrible.
Oh, those are fighting words for Conrad.
He just went to bat for it.
Get it?
See what I did there?
Jack from Merrimack says, favorite baseball movie, Bull Durham, hard to beat, Costner, Serendon, and Robbins.
Good point, Jack.
Yeah, that movie works.
Tony the trucker.
Pete, ask Mike if he ever worked at Kelly's in Middleton, Wisconsin.
Conrad, can you take a memo?
I will.
I will certainly ask Mike that, Tony.
Tony says, if so, has he ever thought about using the experience in his show?
I think there's a story there that Tony is not being forthcoming.
Maybe he knows something.
Well, ask
Mike.
Absolutely, Tony.
Thank you for the text.
Bob Dennis is here.
Mob expert.
You're more of an expert than most of us.
I think that's comfortable to say.
OK, well.
There are different fields of expertise.
You certainly, I think you know, you know more about bulls obviously than the rest of us, but also the mob.
I mean, this is like, I love this stuff.
I've read mob books, but I don't know as much as you.
So you're an expert to me.
I'll just say that.
And it's good to have you here.
I'm glad to be here.
By the way, this
radios.
Look at the shirt I'm wearing.
Do you think we have money for a purple coat?
I think, well, yeah, but you're in Madison.
I mean, rich people go to Madison.
I got it off the rack.
This is from Ragnstock.
Do you like this shirt?
Yeah, it's nice.
Let's see.
Let's get him a purple coat.
He just complimented me.
So I was going to find a way to make it happen.
Do you have, OK, so you said your favorite piece.
Oh, I wanted to ask you, our question last night was beer.
And sometimes these questions stay with me, because I'm curious.
By the way, and I want to share this with you, Bob, Nightlight Beer, called Hazed On Radio, is available right now at Flix Brew House for the Wisconsin Film Festival.
And I was told today by the brewmaster, Dave Hansen.
I tried some last night.
I went out there, and I'm not a beer drinker, necessarily, but it was good.
It has like a passion fruit flavor to it.
And I was told today, he said, it's the highest selling local beer they make.
Two to one.
Really?
Yeah.
And I know I've talked about it you get a concessionally on this show.
I wish It would be loaded saying if I had that kind of money, it wouldn't be here right now.
It would be the Bob and Conrad show
Maybe I'm the weak link here.
I don't know no
no no All right, so let's talk.
Let's get into it man.
I love mob talk I've never been in the bottom.
Have you been in the mob?
Bob, I'm really slap happy today.
I
can kind of tell that you've been working really hard.
I have
and you know, you're very kind Where do we start?
How do we jump in
right just start climbing right?
Let's start with lucky Luciano.
Okay, absolutely because you call him
the most important mobster of all.
And again, folks, we're not saying these are great guys.
I know a lot of them are scumbags, but I am fascinated by the hierarchy infrastructure that the mob built, what they got away with, all this stuff.
It really, truly fascinates me.
And Lucky Luciano, according to you and other people, I've heard this, is the most important of all time.
Why is that?
There was something called the Castle Marese War.
which was two factions in New York that were fighting each other.
The secret behind it was that he was friends on both sides and he actually helped to start the conflict so that he, Lucky Luciano, could turn around and settle it and then go in and organize the other families and with himself as the head of the commission.
So he started a war that he could end to make himself look like a big sweetie.
there you go wow brilliant it's
the dog that's it yeah great
was but was he part of like you know new york had five families probably not at that point they didn't they probably had to sort all that out but where did
Was he under the Gambino family or did he head up his own family?
He went from group to group for a while because he was a very popular guy.
He was also incredibly efficient and knew everybody, could get anywhere, could do anything, and was really working for himself at all times.
However, he probably had his strongest affiliation with the Jewish.
Mafia because he and Meyer Lansky were good friends.
They grew
right
Right, so there were four initial guys.
I know they made a movie about this called mobsters I think with like Christian Slater and and it was lucky Luciano Meyer Lansky
maybe Carlo Gambino or something, I can look that up.
had his own
You had primarily New York...
mobster's on here, Paul Castellano, Carlo Gambino.
I thought Carlo Gambino was one of the original.
Did he come along later?
Later, yeah.
Okay.
I mean, because remember that the longevity of leadership and the mafia is not something necessarily you're going to put on your resume.
Right.
Because more often than not, they last about maybe four years if they're lucky.
before something happens to them, whether the next person beneath them decides, yeah, it's my turn to be in charge.
Geez.
That's crazy.
You have on your list Sophia Vergara from Modern Family.
Is she in the mafia?
is the
but what I'll do is I'll just put it right up
in the
She was making $80 million a month in smuggling of cocaine from Columbia to the US.
She also helped to organize the Medellin cartel.
She was nicknamed La Madrina and the Black Widow, the cocaine godmother and the Queen of Arco-Trafficking.
And she carried out or had carried out on her behalf somewhere around 2,000 deaths, 2,000 deaths.
And when she was eventually shot dead at the age of 69 outside of a butcher shop on a motorcycle in Medellin.
Oh my gosh.
My guest is Bob Dennis.
He is a mob expert and a podcaster.
Tell us about your podcast.
One of them is called Urban Legends and Stranger Truths.
If you just type into your URL or Google or whatever, it'll pop up.
And the other one, which is a little harder to find, is the one that we're talking about.
And that is mob and mafia news.
Yeah.
And that one, I do more contemporary news of what's going on in the world today because the mafia is still incredibly deep throughout the world.
In Europe, specifically, the Drangheta, which is out of Italy, has 20,000 members.
There was really, yes, there was a big bust, I would say, two years ago.
And they thought it was such a tremendous success because they picked up like 2,000 people and it was like, yeah, we'll replace them.
and they turned around and, yeah, it is the dominant mafia in the world right now.
How is, you know, I read, I think we spoke about this the first time you came on, there's Bill Romer wrote some, he was an FBI agent who wrote really good mob books about Tony Spolatro, Anthony Carter, Tony Ricardo and Giancana, I believe.
Great books and I thought,
you know after this family secrets trial maybe in Chicago in the 80s with Lombardo I think his name was that the mob had been basically broken into pieces at least in the US is that true or is that just what they want you to believe how active is the mafia in America right now
don't want
knowing about them, but they still control cocaine trade and fentanyl trade and they still they work with other organizations specifically with cartels Which are a different type of criminal organization the cartels which is from the word cartage, which means to transport They transport the drugs and whatnot and bring that to the different mafia outlets and then they are distributed from there throughout
the United States and into Canada.
Yeah.
That's fascinating.
I didn't know because I know for a long time the mob wanted to stay out of drugs.
At least that's what you see in the movie.
I didn't want to touch that.
That
Huh.
Yeah.
It was just trying to make him look like a somewhat of a moral character.
If they could make money out of it, they would do it right.
Absolutely, 100%.
Can we take a phone call for you?
Sure, if you want.
I think we've got a caller with a question for Bob.
Is this Cindy?
Yes,
it is.
From Appleton.
All
right.
Hey, Cindy.
Good.
How are you?
Doing very well.
How have you been?
Well, I've been good, except I lost my voice at the rally this weekend.
And you still found the time to call further disrupting your vocal cords.
I appreciate that.
Yeah, anyway, there was a bar down in the Appleton down in the what they call the flats Back when I first moved here from the 70s late 70s middle 70s somewhere in there And it was called Jacqueline's and apparently that place was affiliated with the mob.
I
Did we talk about that once
Bob or yeah, we I talked about that once with you Pete.
I
think okay I knew I knew that sounded familiar and I thought I had a guest on maybe a law enforcement officer who chased a guy remember that that
The cop we had on Conrad, the detective.
Yeah, he
wrote his own book,
right?
Yeah, yeah,
yeah, yeah.
And I think Cindy called in then, too.
Does that sound familiar, Cindy?
Yep, yep.
Yeah.
Did you ever hang out there?
Did you ever do any work for the mob?
Well, me?
Yeah.
I hung out there because the food there was, it was just out of this world.
And I really missed the place.
I mean, it's been gone a long time, but it had great food.
And it was kind of dark.
People didn't know who you were when you walked in there because the lights weren't very bright.
So I'm assuming that might have something to do with the fact that...
You know, they didn't want to know who was in there as
well.
Cindy, listen, we will not blow your cover.
Well, if you're
in the mob or not, your secret is safe with us.
Thank you for the call.
Take care of that voice.
All right.
That's Cindy from Appleton.
They always ate well.
And if you've ever been to any of the...
All right mob affiliated restaurants like when I live back east you you couldn't go somewhere back east and not be a part of something going on that was right was affiliated with I mean everybody worked with somebody who was the cold person or the person that The mafia had that it could never be connected with crimes who when there was a problem they would call yeah, and they'd say yeah I need so-and-so and then that person who was the cold person who knew everything that was going on but never committed any crime Was kind of like the communications hub person really interesting
And that was almost everywhere you went, you'd find that.
You know, it's interesting you say that, because I remember thinking when I was living in Chicago, like, well, the mayor deals with the mafia, or it was always like Jimmy Hoffa ran the union, but the mafia ran it.
It's like, you can't get away from it.
There was a time in America, I feel like, where they were so powerful.
you had to deal with them.
They controlled a lot of stuff because they muscled their way into it.
So to say a mayor has to deal with a mob, that doesn't mean he's in the mob, that just means he's kind of at their mercy in a lot of ways.
As were unions, and I felt like that gave unions a bad rap too.
was one of them in New York and in Chicago and in all the major cities that had affiliations with the mafia and the mob because of their ability to be able to work within the unions for the financial portion of what they could do.
Now a lot of that got cleaned up during the 1950s and 60s.
But it still exists.
I'm not saying this is not a political thing, but when...
Donald Trump was in New York.
He also had to deal with them when he was building buildings in
New York
You can't get away from it.
All right, we'll have more with Bob Dennis.
We're talking mafia stuff.
If you have a question for Bob, text or call.
It'd be great to hear from you.
And we'll keep this train going.
We're going to talk some Al Capone, some San Giancana, some 1923.
That's a good show, too.
We'll talk about this.
This is Peach Wabba Nightlight on the Civic Media Radio
Network.
someone's
Our question tonight, what is your favorite baseball movie?
A lot of baseball activity this week.
This is the release date or week of Major League, the Sandlot, and just a bit outside, Sean Hannish and Kelly Calls movie that played in Marcus Theaters.
It was supposed to be a two-week run, and they ended up being in theaters for like two months.
Very popular documentary.
Sean will be here on Friday to talk about some streaming info for that, so a lot of baseball news this week.
In terms of movies, and that's our question of the week, or of the night, is what is your favorite baseball movie?
Are you a baseball fan, Bob?
Oh, yeah, Eight Men
involves the mafia.
It plays right into our theme tonight.
We were just talking during the break about Al Capone.
You said he was a whiz with numbers.
Yes.
So it seems like the smart guys rise to the top.
of organized crime.
But it also seems like the guys that rise to the top are also kind of cold-blooded killers, like Tony Ricardo was supposedly one of Capone's drivers or bagman or whatever.
What is that trick?
Like what makes a great mafia boss?
Is it a combination of muscle and math and having that knowledge or just that you're willing to kill your competition?
I think all of those things you know the thing is is that um they had to always keep track of everybody keep their eyes on everybody at all times but they also had to keep an eye on the business now they had people they trusted but they also knew that they had to keep an eye on the people that they trusted you know I mean and
so
ran all
Frank the one that owned the bar up in Mercer?
Yes.
And he owned it long after his brother died, right?
Yes.
He lived up there.
And
Oh, wow.
You don't have to sneak around to bottle soda, though, right?
You have to worry about
at
I guess.
And Al Capone also had Johnny Torrio as a mentor.
Yes.
Who he probably felt confident being around because your mentor's not going to knock you off.
The mentor's the one that, like, trained you to be the mob boss.
Well,
You know, I think you and I have discussed this on the show before.
There was a show about Capone and I can't remember the actor who played Elliot Ness, but he's a guy that with Tom Amanda's played Elliot Ness.
And I think it was just called Capone or something, but.
The show reenacted a shootout between the North Side Irish gang in Chicago and Bugs Moran and D&L Banyan's gang, which Bugs Moran was a henchman for, I think.
And I think that's when Torio got shot and Bugs Moran walked up, had Capone dead to rights and pointed a gun at him and he was out of ammo.
Click, click.
That would have changed history.
Everything, yep.
Yeah.
ethnics.
They were the Irish, believe it or not, and Jewish.
And they were the two big ones and they stayed away from each other.
They gave each other, you know, plenty of room to be able to function.
And if you go into New England, they're the only place left now is in the Boston area, primarily where you have the heavily Irish areas.
But as the Italian immigrants continued to come into America and spread throughout the country, they went to cities where they were able to then set up, and the mafia, of course, followed them because of the ethnicity.
And what happened is that the Jewish mafias
did not have those large numbers of families to be able to expand specifically in the Chicago area They kept moving a little further out a little further out and as they did they dispersed themselves and they used to call them the kosher coupons and They basically kind of fell apart because they didn't have any cohesiveness They didn't have enough people to be able to continue to to run their mafias and a large part of that was then absorbed by the Irish
and then the Irish in turn were taken over by the traditional mafia.
And there are different divisions of mafia within, not mafia, but families within the mafia.
There are the Sicilians who are considered the true mafia.
But then there are other city-affiliated mafias that are not quite the strong, the Comorra, but now it's something else.
It's the Dringata who are the big guys.
So you say the Irish and the Jewish mobsters ran everything was that before the Italians?
Are we talking before Italians were even on the scene when it came to organized crime?
and
Mafias were already entrenched in Detroit.
There was something there's also one that was in Philadelphia But this is modern-day times for it was called the purple gang the purple gang in Philadelphia in that area is different than the purple gang that was the Jewish mafia in Detroit and So they had these these centers of power that they worked from but like I said as time passed they didn't have
as many members, they just started to dwindle, whereas the Italian immigrants who came in had large families, had large relations, they brought more people in, and basically they overwhelmed them.
Wow.
That's interesting and I know that it just based on the reading I've done that the Irish and the Italians did have an agreement at least in Chicago Everybody was making money But as I understand it the O'Banion gang got greedy and they went to war They were the ones that decided to go to war with Capone's gang and they lost that and then history was written But we'll get into more of this.
We've got a couple mob movies I want to ask you about I know lefty Rosenthal was part of the casino movie played by Robert De Niro.
That's a great film
And we'll have more on organized crime with Bob Dennis.
He is in studio, folks.
Civic Media's news team is about to tell you everything you need to know.
That's coming up now.
We'll be back in a few minutes with more mob talk and then Mike Mercury at 720.
This is Pete Schwabba in Nightlight on the Civic Media Radio Network.
