The Making of the Mob: New York | Equal Opportunity Gangster (S01-E02)

Episode 2: By 1928, Lucky and his gang are successful criminals bent on taking out the most powerful gangster in the city. However, their plans are halted when Rothstein is gunned down over a gambling debt. In the wake of his mentor's death, Lucky reads that the federal government is cracking down on gang activity and special task forces raid speakeasies and mob headquarters. This nationwide effort to take down mobsters was triggered by the actions of notorious gangster Al Capone with the St. Valentine's Day Massacre in Chicago. During a mob convention hosted by Enoch "Nucky" Johnson at his casino in Atlantic City, Lucky convinces Capone to take the fall, pleading to a minor charge. When the stock market crashes, Lucky gains power in the underworld during the Great Depression and develops a new racket by providing high interest rate loans to failing businesses, creating loan sharks. In 1931, Sicilian mob boss Salvatore Maranzano flees Benito Mussolini's fascist Italy, setting up shop in New York City. He destroys Joe Masseria's warehouse and starts an all-out turf war between the two bosses, known as the Castellammarese War.

Lucky earns his nickname when he is kidnapped and tortured by Maranzano's men to send a message, dumping him in Staten Island. Lucky forges an alliance with the man who had beaten him within an inch of his life by taking out Joe the Boss when he's dining at a restaurant. But when Maranzano declares himself capo di tutti capi and hires a hitman to kill those he doesn't trust, Lucky is at the top of the list. It's killed or be killed, so Lucky gets to the boss of all bosses first by having his men disguise themselves as IRS agents to carry out the hit. In less than five months, Lucky has just taken out the two biggest mob bosses and becomes the king of New York.