 Welcome back into the original gangsters podcast. I'm your host Scott Bernstein along with my co-host partner in crime the doctor Jimmy Buche Lotto. Hi everyone. Hey now. We got Benny produce producing us behind the glass and today we're going to do a retrospective episode we're going to talk about the the 50 year anniversary of the major coxswain murder, which was a really big deal on the east coast of the United States back in the early 70s major coxswain was a very colorful flamboyant power broker kind of both in the underworld and in legitimate society was best friends with Muhammad Ali had a lot of dealings with both the Italian mafia in New York and the Italian mafia in Philadelphia as well as the Kind of gonna it's gonna be our point of departure in this episode the Philadelphia black mafia or the PBM So we're gonna do a little deep dive on that. I want to remind everybody to like subscribe share On the socials. We're trying to grow this thing every day We're trying to give you more content and it only helps when we can you know amplify the word so This month is the 50 year anniversary of the of the major coxswain I don't want to say it's a massacre But it almost was is to to pride they tried the Philly black mafia family who had been very closely aligned with major coxswain worked together for You know five ten years made a lot of money together But it didn't seem to matter in the summer of 1973 He had just run for mayor of Camden, New Jersey So he was like a political figure when when he was murdered and Muhammad Ali who was his best friend at that time and lived Down the street from him and had actually bought his house and and then major coxswain built this like post modern futuristic Mansion like out of a Star Trek episode, which is where he's a pretty cool mob Yeah, and in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, which is where he was murdered. We're gonna get into the reasons why but Muhammad Ali in the in the two years leading up to coxswain slain Muhammad Ali Propelled this guy into the national conversation Because Muhammad Ali at that point was the probably most recognizable athlete on the planet and for about 18 months Whenever you put a microphone on his face. He was propping up major coxswain like literally on national television Numerous appearances and I think the most famous was when he he fought Jerry quarry in one of his comeback fights after he had to leave the Leave the ring because of his political Protests and he grabbed the mic from Howard Cosell and said I want to dedicate this win in this fight To the future mayor of Camden, New Jersey, major coxswain so I'm gonna throw it over to Jimmy and I think we're gonna just kind of give some context To the situation that that came to a head and erupted in a very violent manner in the first week of june 1973 But let's talk a little bit about the organization of the the Philly black mafia family and how they dealt with the Italians how they dealt with people like coxswain who who were their Entry points into Higher society Yeah, this is one of my favorite case studies to research and shout out to Sean patrick Griffin who's a friend of the show black brother zinc one of the greatest true crime books ever written I agree. Yeah in the hall theme It's it's one of my favorites and uh, this is you know primarily where where I did my research Just looking at his text But another thing I want to point out is something interesting about this area is if you're if you're not from that area Um, I I've spent a lot of time there because of family. I didn't grow up there or anything, but Um, if you're unfamiliar with that area philly camden and cherry hill are literally right next to each other So you within what five seven miles something like that. I mean it's really camden and philly literally Yeah, but up against each other your cherry hill is right there too So you're living in new jersey, but you're a suburban night From the philadelphia area right and so camden and cherry hill phillies like their main hub And then A little bit farther toward the coast is around the coast is atlantic city So that's why this area has always been so fascinating to me Whether it's the the bruno scarfo family the philly black mafia the cherry hill gambino's the atlantic city stuff There's a this is a hotbed of underworld activity in a small Yeah, uh geographic Space and if you're not if it's not from there and you've never been there I mean, I remember one of the first times I went to philly. I stayed in cherry hill And I was like, wait cherry hill jersey. I thought this was like, you know, we were An hour or two hours from philadelphia and you're literally five minutes from south philly. That's right. They're depending on traffic. Um, so um, but yeah, the black mafia is a fascinating case study and um It's interesting because We we we know now from some of this research from guys like griffin and some of the reporting coming out of the 70s That this was not just some loose network of African-american criminals who kind of knew each other and worked with each other from time to time This really was a black mafia It wasn't highly structured highly structured Borderline paramilitary. Yes, right, right. They added divisions of labor They were in all sorts of different rackets. Um everything from armed robbery It actually one of the when they first were getting going a lot of it was just what you would think of with This is usually the case with these kind of groups extortion They're shaking hits for hire Muscle just muscle work, right? So, uh, but eventually they get into large-scale drug trafficking armed robbery Arms trafficking hijacking gambling a lot of it. They were big time. Uh gambling gambling dens, right in that And then they filly and and then I think these guys and then There were some Guys in in chicago. I don't know the exact timeline who was first but they And I guess there was some of this going on. I think uh in california as well, but it was more there was more political black panther connections to it But where they found a way to get government funding and kind of a government shield to pretend That they were doing community work And have this community were funded by grants and whatnot when the reality it was just a You know a facade for their criminal activity and that's where black that's kind of where the term black brothers ink comes from Not kind of that's where that's where it comes from, right? So there was a parallel this was going on in chicago for sure. Um And this was these were programs that were coming out of the great society lbj in the 1960s community empowerment grants And you know to be fair some of those community empowerment grants did go to organizations that were legit And and they tried to help education and minority owned businesses and things like that But there's no question that in some cases some shady dudes were were using that opportunity to launder money and and basically as you point out just to have a To legitimize what was ostensibly a criminal organization for the philadelphia guys that extended their Maybe not the the founders themselves, but the organization I think it extended their lifespan I think so, but but that original generation. Well, I don't want to get into it just yet, but It would have but they were so conspicuously violent That eventually they went down, but if they had been if they had been less I think uh rogue, uh, it probably could have like could have lasted you pointed out and again, I want I want to Contextualize this as much as possible because there is nuance Before we got on air and we should you know color yourself for people. There were really kind of three separate generations of a philly black mafia Group and and and part of it were remnants of it exist today. Yeah, uh, but It the people that started it and the people that were leading it later on were were different Which is also another reason why it was more organized more of like an organization, right? So that the the first regime First layer first regime That they were the ones that were most connected to the nation of islam So that that's a place Sam christian and ron harvey Who right and christian would be They didn't use these terms, but we would say like the the boss right harvey would have been the under boss if if Yeah, if they used those kind of uh That's basically what their ranking and these guys were just brute force Yeah, they were pretty mean guys I had there was no sheets a mile long. There was no finesse In christian and harvey. No, they were um You respect power and that was their approach and we're going to be we're going to blast through the door We're going to blast the doors off the hinges With the power that we're going to bring right off the bat establishing ourselves as a as a you know a force to be reckoned with in the Underworld yeah, and when you talk about no finesse, I mean I I know I draw these comparisons from from hollywood But they just they're the ones that pop in my head and people are maybe are more familiar with Do you think of the scene in american gangster where he shoots? Denzel shoot right shoots them right there in front of everyone But but which was that's not what frank lucas did But never happened with these guys That's like almost the kind of shit that they would do because they would do that radical shit in broad daylight To your point about they wanted to be conspicuous. That was the whole point. Yeah was Take note of who's in charge here, and I think we're gonna mistake You know, you'll see it exemplified in the major coxswain murder where These people are so bloodthirsty That they don't want to just take out their aggression on the person that they're mad at Which is major coxswain But they try to kill his whole family So it's like it's just Uh unadulterated evil with a lot of this. There's no No Not you know Sit there and get moral and ethical judgments on criminal activity, but I can always Find a level of respect for for an entrepreneurial endeavor Um, and you know my relatives jimmy's relatives, you know came over from your came over from Right. He's reppin it right now came over from europe You know in the early 20th century and nothing was given to them and they had to go take it uh, so being entrepreneurial And being a criminal i'm not saying it's right But I can understand the mindset more, but just the pure evil Uh and Viciousness the visceral viciousness of a group like this is uh, I think it's all different Different story altogether. Yeah, it reminds me of the episode we did with leo silva about the the cartels because These guys were that first wave. I should say We're terroristic like those those Techniques or tactics were designed to terrorize the community and the underworld and it worked Like I mean people were really afraid of these guys right from notice and they and it made it where The people that they wanted, you know, they didn't just want the Civilians or the marks to take notice. They wanted Angelo Bruno to take notice. Yes They wanted carlo gambino new york to take notice, right? Uh, so I think that's another Layer to this that they were announcing their presence with authority and and their Uh, their profile and their reach, you know went from zero to a hundred very quickly from let's say in the mid 60s where these guys Weren't even really formed yet Uh, at least in the form that we knew them as but by the mid 70s They were dominant another interesting aspect I want to get back to the nation of islam stuff in a moment But another interesting factor here is that the element of racism here, which is one of the reasons why they had this What's the word meteoric rise is Law enforcement and the italians weren't taking them seriously at first because they were like, you know, this is race Racist segregationists decided like black mafia. Get the fuck right, right? Like they don't they can't organize and then yeah, you leave a couple dozen bodies in your wake and these guys Right perk up their ears perk up real quick. Yeah, then they and you show them you can make money Yeah, then they got they eventually got everyone's attention But so I want to mention this because this is an interesting aspect of the story here It's the muhammad temple 12 is the nation of islam Um mosque in philly, right that that brings these guys into the fall and so um Is jeremiah shabazz was the was the head of the the sect there and he was appointed by the honorable Elijah mom and and He brings in guys like harvey and christian as enforcers into the nation into the nation so that kind of legitimized them and Um and protected them the mosque was protection for them Yeah, and it also it's similar to what we talked about with the italians and other groups when you when you infiltrate legitimate society this can also insulate you in terms of People in the neighborhood or people that were affiliated with the mosque They know these guys are shady, right? They're not they're not naive but They mix in with their criminal exploits some things for the community And so then it gets really and you add a religion and religious It's like well, they're they may be bastards, but they're our they're our bastards And so we're not going to snitch on them or talk about them So even leave the fear apart out of it for just just this this kind of psychology of these are our This is our community. We're not going to snitch on them. Um, and there is this this this um argument That jeremiah shabazz was the real leader of godfather of the black of the black mafia Now, I don't believe that was ever He was ever convicted on any charges like that Um, usually that the standard approach is that sam christian was the first boss But there's no question that he deferred to Shabazz on a lot of things and he worked for him and I suspect shabazz was getting a cut of Well, I mean the illicit activities they were involved I don't think this is a news flash and I don't want to go down the rabbit hole here, but And I can't speak to the nation of islam in the 2020s But the nation of islam at that point in time It was more than just the fact that these philly guys were using them as Uh, you know cover I mean, I would say Elijah Muhammad in some ways was a crime boss as well as being the leader of Right, so just you know Malcolm X right So and just go you know bring us You can hit the siren benny when I try to we try to bring everything back to detroit But I mean Elijah Muhammad took power in the nation of islam In detroit, yeah Again never proven in court, but a lot of people believe Causing the disappearance of the founder of the nation of islam who founded it in detroit, right? And this guy disappeared in the 1930s. Yeah Uh far far hot. I don't want to I can't remember. I can't and uh, and Elijah Muhammad ended up taking control of the nation and and led it for 40 years and and and yeah, this is not the rabbit hole to go down, but this was part of melcom's Uh disenchantment with with Elijah Muhammad was that when he became more aware of the hypocrisy and the shady dealings and he broke off with him and Probably paid for it with his life. I mean, well, I mean, I think I think it's undisputed that I think uncle Sam was involved too. I mean too, but I agree with that part of it too But it's undisputed that the shooters Were or is not we're nation of islam. Yeah, right, right. I think I think there were some cahoots going on Back to your phrasing the enemy of my enemy is my friend and the nation of islam and uncle Sam may be in cahoots But that that's a whole nother thing and just in the second in to the kind of pointy departure of this episode with major coxswain That's how Muhammad Ali became Tied in to coxswain. So Muhammad Ali. I mean again, everybody Probably knows this was cash his clay uh Comes from louisville, kentucky becomes the champion of the world Within days of becoming champion of the world announces that he's uh Listen, it's gonna change his name to Muhammad Ali Uh, so he was living in chicago He has all of his, you know political angst refusing to go into the draft Loses the belt can't fight almost goes broke data But when he's making his comeback, he leaves chicago And where does he go? Philadelphia cherry hill And who does he hook up with major coxswain? So major coxswain is the person that And if you read some of Ali's biographies That's why he moved to that area was because of coxswain not just because of the mosque there And and the the nation there because the nation was in chicago too, right? Yeah, that was the club Yeah coxswain convinced convinced him to move uh and train in pennsylvania and and uh Move down to the philadelphia area And they began spending a lot of time together. I believe they met each other in 1967 or 68 um and by the early 70s Ali has moved to cherry hill and is living down the street from coxswain And they're spending Inordinate amounts of time together and at this point coxswain is rebranding himself a politician And I think to his credit. I want to throw this to jimmy, you know from a from the socio-academic perspective I thought I think coxswain was very smart In addressing the elephant in the room when he announced that he was trying to be a politician And he had this uh go to quip where he would say You know most politicians start Clean and end up dirty. He's like i'm flipping it. Yeah, i'm flipping the paradigm I was dirty and now from knowing the wrongs of of my Previous ways now i'm clean it up. I know how to clean it up And and now i'm gonna i'm gonna go from dirty to clean as opposed from clean to dirty Yeah, which was which is pretty smart I mean ultimately he didn't win the election but it's smart in the sense of just getting in front of it Like just like let me just Tackle this right now rather than like these allegations and like yeah, yeah I'm like I was a crook and and he and he's another one of these guys that Although he had his fingers and a lot of pies in terms of Business interests a lot of them weren't in his name right and this guy lived a life and and uh Promoted a style of living That couldn't necessarily be backed up with tax returns like he lived High on the hog he had a limit. He had a chauffeur. He drove around in a stretch limousine in multiple homes. Yeah He was a jet setter Dressed in the finest clothes. Yeah, David the finest women drove the finest cars so forth and so forth And didn't really it was hard to trace the money Right and he he was an interesting guy because he's really at this sort of nexus of He is connected to legitimate society like not only legitimate business people but celebrities like Ali He's connected to that to the temple 12 Which which means black mafia? Yeah But he's also connected to the italians not just in philly But in new york. Well, carlo gambino's crime family specific. I mean carlo wasn't that That far removed from the people that were dealing with major coxson, you know One name that's come up quite a bit in that Investigation into those ties was carmine lumbardosie. Sorry. Yeah, carmine lumbardosie. They called him the doc or doctor And he was carlo gambino's main Drug skipper Yeah, and this is a little bit before the cherry hill gambino's ramp up there They were they were around right, but this was before they were the the primary drug suppliers in the gambino family Uh, but there were other guys that were that were dealing junk Before that and and he was one of those guys when I pointed my point to the Audiences the listeners the viewers is that it wasn't like major coxson was doing business with the gambino's and he was doing business with like Out of a a roster of 500 guys. He's doing business with the 490 499 Or an associate of an associate of number 499, right? Like no, he was doing business with the top echelon Guys in both the philadelphia mafia the bruno crime family at that point and and the gambino's Yeah, so he is uh, he's brokering deals So he is the he's the guy who is able to Um, get the black mafia to buy heroin from the italians Um, he's also one of these guys who is like a fixer Sometimes if the bruno family needed muscle or something like that, he's you know, they go to him He can he can get black brotherhood guys or black mafia guys So he's he's really an important pivotal figure in the underworld in this whole in this whole tri-state area and um I mean just before we get to the to the sensationalistic murder of him Let's talk about maybe one of the other High-profile crimes the black mafia commits around this time, which is the furniture store. So there was a heist and robber There was a series of very brazen Crimes murders shootings that like Got increasingly worse increasingly Um, I just keep on going back to vicious because this yeah, so you had more intense You had the the dubro furniture situation you had the uh The club uh, all right murders in in in Atlantic City and you had the the major coxswain And they all happened in the same year or two years, right? So the let's start with the uh um With the the furniture store because then the the Atlantic City ones were closer related to the coxswain, but the furniture store Uh, I think I don't know if it's dubro or dubraus furniture store, which was uh, what would you say like just an institution in that area in that area uh in downtown philadelphia or was it um South I can't remember exactly what part of philly it was located. Yeah, um, but it was a well-known location. It was uh, yeah It was a landmark. Yeah landmark uh placed institution and they Robbed the place and tried to extort it in broad daylight not like um, you know, uh Hey, uh, you know, it would be a shame if something bad were to happen here Yeah, and everybody goes home They close up the shop and at three o'clock in the morning a fire bomb or fire Right, and when they walked in the broad daylight and said, you know, you this is we control this territory now you got to pay us an extortion tax and uh, you know, they were like, I don't know what you're talking about So they said, well, let's explain what we're talking about. So they tie everyone up customers employees Uh, they tie everyone up Uh start, you know, pistol whipping people one guy was killed. I think the was either security guard or one of the employees was killed Maybe it was a janitor. I can't remember but um And then they say if you don't believe us yet, they start dousing the place with gas Accelerant Yeah, or whatever some kind of flammable and they're like, we're gonna torch this fucking place with all of you tied up in it Uh, if you don't understand that that and the person that was leading this team of uh robbers killers Ruffians was one of the original founding members And and he plays a role in future generations Of of the organization. His name is Robert Mims. He went by the nickname nudie And nudie was the one that was leading the charge in this This this just like insane unreal extortion effort Yeah, and this is one of those examples of it was so high profile if the media And law enforcement weren't taking them seriously yet. They they were now Which not only was bad for them in terms of the So-called black mafia, but this of course then brought heat on the nation of islam too, right? It all started to You know become exposed, but that was one of the the more high profile public Uh examples of their criminality the second one was the the um Execution assassination of a guy who was a similar kind of player to major coxswain Maybe not quite as big, but he was no, I would say the tire his name is tyrone palmer Yeah, mr. Millionaire. He was more of a gangster version of coxswain. Yeah coxswain was more of a racketeer Yeah, good point. Yeah, I agree with I agree with that. He was a major Drug dealer in the working with the italians, right? directly with the bruno family ty palmer and um, he was also working with the black mafia And I can't remember exactly what went bad But something I don't know if palmer stiffed them on a drug dealer something. Do you remember that? I can't remember what went bad. It was some dispute over drug I'm sure that's a drug dealer drug territory. Yeah, or who was Pain who water who was answering to who and what deal? Yeah So back to your point about how they would shoot first and ask questions So there was no like let's have a sit down and it was just like we're gonna kill this mother and they went into a club Which was like the the the most popular club for for the african-american community in atlang city It was like a weekend the place was packed Yeah, and and they go use it for shooting practice and there was a Prominent rmb artist performing that evening. I think I think it was billy paul Yeah, it was billy paul and then and then not only is ty palmer killed but his bodyguard big malik satterwhite who was a Large individual that watched tyron's back tyron was a big guy too. Yeah, they both were killed in the So it was so conspicuous I mean they they start shooting in the middle of the performance The band everyone hits the deck hiding behind drum set and and shit like that It was very conspicuous. So and it should be pointed out That these are these og pbm guys the guys that founded the group and really set the tone sam christian ron harvey nudie mims the first three that we mentioned They weren't sending underlings to do their dirty work They were doing the dirty work themselves and Relishing it great point. Yeah. No, that's that's a great point Sam christian and I believe ron harvey went into club harlem and personally took care of tyron paulmer and malik satterwhite Yeah, and happy to do so. Yeah, it's not like well, we couldn't find And allegedly enjoyed their work with major coxson It was sam christian and ron harvey who were the bosses of the organization Going to deal with the problem firsthand Yeah, so coxson would have been well aware of how serious these guys were at this point So so now why don't you set up the specific scenario where he gets in trouble? So coxson is spending all of 72 into 73 Running for mayor of camden. What's it? Just it's interesting for fans of pop culture and film the movie american hustle where There's a character played by jeremy renner Who I think the character's name was carmine palido. That wasn't his real name, but it was an italian um It was an italian politician that coxson was running against that politician beat coxson And then got caught up a decade later in abscam, which was shown in the movie. Yeah, uh american hustle. So uh at the same time of the election, I believe the election was march 8th march 7th or 8th of 73 is the night of the election coxson loses I believe a couple days before the election. It might have been march 2nd or 3rd There is a Million dollar shipment of harrowing traveling from brooklyn to philadelphia um At this point major coxson has nothing to do with the deal It's a deal that's being made between bobeins of the philly black mafia family who's the The second leader kind of the second generation kind of a less Less violence right more diplomatic. Yeah He's on one side of the deal and then the gambino crime family and the lombardosie crew They're the supplies are on the other side of it. Yeah and two guys That were unaffiliated That were just kind of stick up kids if you know the wire and you know that expression. Yeah, uh got wind of the package Either they didn't know who this deal was involving or they were too strung out to care They robbed the shipment And a million dollars of drugs are in the wind The coxson loses on march 8th loses the election and at some point by the end of march The gambinos in new york call coxson to brooklyn And ask him if he could troubleshoot for them and they say we got three hundred thousand dollars for you If you Find out who these two guys are Bring them to us And get us our drugs back coxson goes back to cherry hill philadelphia area and subcontracts To his friends in the philly black mafia family And promises them two hundred thousand To do the job that the gambinos were asking him to do In I think they spend a month of due diligence trying to find who did it and Where they were and then i'm like may first i think These two guys these two stick-up kids End up dead in an alley the philly black mafia guys I don't know who specifically did this but people that were working on bobein's behalf Just took the drugs themselves Didn't give the drugs to major coxson to give back to the gambinos The gambinos said not only did we want our drugs back, but we wanted to deal with these two guys We just wanted you to find them for us, right The gambinos are telling major coxson you I guess Broke your part of the contract or didn't fulfill your end of the contract So we're not going to give you anything the philly black mafia family guys Who did the 200k? Worth of muscle work They didn't care right that that that their pavement in theory would have been the drugs Uh, they wanted the 200k that that major coxson had promised them. Yeah Major coxson as I as I was talking about earlier. He he lived very A very flashy existence. I don't know how much it's liquid Right, I don't think he had 200 right. He didn't have right to just buy his way out of this so he was scrambling for a good month to try to raise the money and it was You know, you know, he was kind of viewed as a dead man walking nobody wanted to give him the money And then the first week of june, I think it was june 3rd first week of june 1973 According to the according investigators according to the fbi Harvey and christian Forced their way into the house or got into the house because major coxson let them in the house now they were The charges never stuck. They were convicted on other things. Yeah, but the actual charges unrelated to coxson Were never adjudicated with christian and harvey. Yeah, maybe harvey But I i'm I agree with you christian for sure was not okay. He wasn't died. He was uh convicted on other charges But they were both indicted for this right, but harvey. I can't remember you may be right But I can't remember if it for some reason i'm thinking one of them was convicted of it But I I can't remember but major coxson lives in this post modern futuristic mansion. Yeah, it's pretty cool looking and uh Harvey and christian and whoever else allegedly Come in there and they don't just take care of major coxson major coxson has a A girlfriend who's more of like a common law wife He had been with her for 15 years or so and had you know claimed her her kids as his kids and uh I think there were there was him her and it I think at least three. Yeah, at least three kids or whatever you call. Yeah, and um They they tied him all up Gagged him blindfolded him and shoot him off and try to shoot him all in the head The one of the little boys Was able to escape. Yeah Through the bathroom window or something like that coxson is killed at point blank range One of his stepdaughters is killed Another one of his stepdaughters survives being shot And the common law wife survives but is paralyzed for the rest of real life Yeah, and the only reason why they survived was the one boy got away and was able to like call 911 or whatever Notify somebody that called the police or else they would have they would have bled out too Yeah, but it was it's another example of how brutal so brutal vicious. They were because again Um, they could have coxson was not hiding. He was very high profile. They could have hit him He was a man about town until the very end. Yeah, he wasn't he wasn't ducking anybody They could have hit him anywhere They chose to go to his house where his family the civilians would be and and and and even still You don't have to execute the family. It was bloodlust. I mean it, uh, it was again was part of this like We're sending this message that we're fucking Crazy and I think it's also noteworthy I don't know why i'm smiling. That's not funny, but What was Muhammad Ali's reaction? So immediately all of the media outlets Be because Muhammad Ali had been running around not just Jersey and philadelphia. He'd been running around the country for the previous Year year and a half shouting the praises of major coxson. He wasn't Being shy about his friendship or his relationship, but the second that coxson's murdered All of a sudden You know, I've met him a couple times. Yeah, I barely knew I barely knew the guy Right is what all what Muhammad Ali was saying Yeah, and it's just it's clear hypocrisy. Yeah, because you know, you were you were literally Not just flying around the country shouting his praises but you literally jumped on national television at a time when there are only three networks And it grabbed the microphone from hierarchical cell and told everyone what a huge How much you loved major coxson and then less than a year later You're gonna do a I didn't know the guy. Yeah, and you know, I don't know. I'm not an expert on Ali at all I've never read a biography or anything, but I I can imagine that Ali Knew that coxson was a was a sketchy dude but I imagine Ali did not appreciate the The gravity coxson was dealing with like when that goes bad The types of consequences that that can result I I suspect he never fully appreciated that I don't know if this people can fact check us on that if they've read biographies of them or I don't know Sean Patrick Griffin put out a great thread on social media on the anniversary date a couple weeks ago I'm not positive if I got these photos from his thread or from another thread But someone was talking about this on social media during the anniversary And they said don't let people tell you that Muhammad Ali was just connected to major coxson Here are some photos Of Muhammad Ali with nudie men's here are some photos of Muhammad Ali with bobeins. Yeah, I'm sure so Well, they were all the same circle. So it would that would make that would make sense So let's talk about veins and men and Ali might have been sorry, but Ali was actually My understanding is Ali was in fear himself Yes, at that when you first went down. Yeah, because he was so closely affiliated and think about how I know I'm mixing apples and oranges a little bit, but I think it speaks to the time Think about how close that was to the Manson murders. Yeah, even though it was a cross country and it was a different Circumstances, but it was a massacre of people close to celebrities or celebrities themselves Where the killers really didn't care I'm sure Muhammad Ali's thing and these guys went and tried to kill major coxson and his whole family They don't care that I'm Muhammad Ali. No, they'll kill me too Of course, and they they would have if they had if they had good good reason or in their minds good reason Well, so then let's talk about the speaking of celebrities. Let's talk about celebrity athletes the last high profile Crime of that first wave of leadership because then there's still more black mafia to talk about But this involves Another guy who converts to islam Luhel cinder who becomes great. I'll do a bar. Yes. You want to well that out, but I think I think that that's even worse If you thought that what we just talked about was was bad. This is even worse and there's a dovetailing here um Not a direct connection in terms of coxson But a direct a direct connection in terms of these fairly black mafia figures were talking about harvey and christian um, ron ron harvey and sam christian so just like with my with melcom x Who was a disciple of elijah muhammad and then tried to Break off and create his own sect of muslim and then eventually was assassinated uh There was another disciple of elijah muhammad who in the late 70s or sorry early 70s broke off and to start his own sect of of the nation and Got financial backing from kareem abdul jabar formerly luhel cinder um who just like muhammad ali was one of the most recognizable athletes not just in america but on the planet at that point And Jabar felt so close that they were they were known as the hanat the hanafi muslims. I think so. Yeah I'm sorry if i'm butchering the name But He felt so close to them that he hanafi. Yeah, he either Moved out of his mansion in dc and gave them his mansion or he or he purchased them A mansion an estate and a like a compound. Yeah to um To to run their affairs out of now at this point Uh, kareem abdul jabar is playing for the milwaukee bucks And is living in milwaukee most of the most of the year Did you know that by the way benny that he used to play for the bucks before the lakers He won his first one his first one his first title with the box. Yeah, milwaukee because when i was a kid He won he was he was already with the lake right me I don't have i have no memory of him with anyone but the lakers oscar robert him and oscar robert Or was it oscar or urlman row? Awesome, but i think urlman was urlman I don't know. Okay. Nonetheless. Nonetheless. Um The philly black mafia was contracted allegedly by the nation of islam's leaders to to Hit basically to put out a hit on the hanafi branch That this hanafi guy started And just like with major coxson. They storm the mansion. They tie everybody up There are like infants That they drown in a bathtub Uh, and they killed was like nine months. They killed like seven people in this By the way, the main target wasn't even there right and they still killed everyone right the hanafi guy that they went to go kill Right, wasn't there. He wasn't even there killed his lieutenants and their families right and and um We should also note a little bit of context here is that This split was not an amicable split right so the hanafi sect Not only did they just break off because we're incompatible or something They were calling him a false prophet right right. They were releasing these like pr things denouncing him as opposed to malcom gangster He was uh, the sexual deviant things like that. So malcom wasn't I think malcom was privately blasting the nation. Yeah, but not No, he was he was more diplomatic. He was doing things such as meeting with martin Luther king that were Promoting Anti or that were kind of against what the nation would do. Yeah, which would upset the nation But he wasn't like you see he wasn't going on television or Or taking big interviews and calling elijah mohammed No, a fraud. No, he kind of kept it to himself. Which is this other one was very public You're i'm glad you pointed out because that is what got that contract put on right Was the fact that he had called him a fault had called elijah mohammed a false prophet right and that was that was um unacceptable so Who do they use they don't use people from the temple? I mean, I guess they did but not from chicago at least they used the philly black mafia guys, allegedly and so christian and harvey after this Again, this just shocks that you know everyone if they thought the coxson thing was bad This is this is even worse and or at least whatever however you want to say more severe whatever but um So christian and harvey the number one number two in the philly black mafia now are on the fbi's most wanted list so so now um They're going after these guys So i'm not sure with the timeline with that Maybe you're right with the coxson. Maybe I can't i'm i'm now kind of confused about all those four those four brazen slain's or Double triple homicides. They may have overlapped. They all happened between like 72 and 73 or between there was like it All was consolidated within like so They may have already been wanted before the the washington and then now it's a full court national like federal law enforcement now Is it's they're on their radar And there's um, you know, you can look in the book or online. There's a pretty cool fbi most wanted posters posters for for harvey and christian And uh, they eventually get them and and christian they actually found here in detroit um And so kind of an interesting uh detroit angle there, but they they get both of them and then bow bain's Uh ascends To the boss. He had kind of been their street boss. I don't know if it was an official title or not um, and we said he he was um He was still ruthless but less ruthless. I guess Well, they're a lot more polished right second wave right of leadership and uh, he got his um His hooks, I guess you could say into The the philadelphia black soul movement, which was kind of a response to motown Where there was a lot of great Uh rhythm and blues music coming out of the philadelphia area being produced by the same people I know gamble and huff. I think were the two big names Yeah, I think they'd also worked at motown at one point. Um, excuse me if i'm wrong with that But these these were like the the berrigordies Of philadelphia and one of the big labels that produced this type of music was called philly groove records and it was Basically owned by the philly black mafia stan wassen uh, stan the man wassen was a Uh, at very least he was an affiliate if not a member and bow bain's was Running the show. I mean he was working there But it was kind of like one of those things where you know sam rostin is Is the head of food and beverage. Oh, yeah, but in reality, he's calmish. So bow bain's Muscled his way into the into the music industry and again, there's there's never been any, um bow bain's died a couple years ago and he had kind of turned around his life at the end Yeah, and he all as far as I know, I mean he was always very like sort of um had this kind of like This was a conspiracy by the federal government to uh You know undermine The the nation of islam and these these political efforts at black empowerment Yeah And because he would distance himself from like harvey. He would say like, I don't know Whatever they were doing that nothing to do with me. Yeah, I was I was in it for Community and empowerment and and and and so one of their last alleged high profile murders though again, it speaks to the uh the heinous nature of The operations that these guys Carried out uh, so Within that Philly soul Music scene There became A fight basically over Who controls titty pender grass? And titty pender grass was one of the main titty p. I mean Not a professor anymore I mean titty I kind of vaguely remember the end of titty pender grass is like stardom He was on the radio when I was a little kid, but in the 70s. There was nobody like as a a solo artist in In the kind of african-american rmb world I mean teddy was it teddy was like a lebron james And and women swooned And he was a superstar. Yeah, and he was from philadelphia and uh There was a I don't know if a power struggle or a tug of war over who had control over his business affairs and teddy pender grasses Girlfriend common law wife. I believe her name. I don't know her whole name. They call her taz She was murdered. Uh, I don't know if anybody was ever Arrested for it. I believe it happened in 1978 And um The the the authorities believed that it was a hit that was ordered on a woman by Philly black mafia family because they felt that this woman was Refusing to give access to pender grass um Then tony pender grass himself would get paralyzed in a uh car accident Uh a couple years after that And and that that obviously affected his career But well, that was that was more high profile, which was in a lot of ways counter to the second waves leadership style which where they were they actually made efforts to In terms of damage control for pr and they and they actually were able to Get connected they were more business minded and they were able to get connected with local politicians local judges And kind of you use get those federal grants And they got deeper in with the philadelphia italian mafia Right and long john modern and part of it was we're not going to be as conspicuously violent killing kids and shit like that It's now we we it's not like we won't kill people if we have to but but that's not going to be our first order of a couple of a couple of bobane's Successors were murdered In the late 70s early 80s. So it wasn't like they stopped being violent. Of course not But to your point it wasn't their calling card the way it was Earlier, we're not going to set the furniture store on fire in front of everybody. The bottom line became more important and and that's where I think angelo bruno was Okay with green lighting more joint endeavors and and long john modernano who already was He was all you know Again, I don't want to go down this rabbit hole, but long john moderno was killed about 20 years ago Still an open investigation. He was a you know a polarizing figure until the day he died Yeah, but you know the polarization with long john started in the late 70s because he was so close to angelo bruno Uh, and he was allowed to deal drugs when nobody else was And he was not just angelo bruno's connection to the bikers but he was also angelo bruno's connection to these philly black mafia family guys and it was I think there was a um We talked a little bit about the south air Long john didn't really again from what I've heard and talked to in research Didn't really look down on these black mafia family guys. He saw them as all you know kind of equals and wasn't you know Showed a lot of reverence and respect for these guys and I think that People judged him for that on the street. Yeah, but I think some of that was Jealousy because of his position as one of angelo bruno's kind of a golden child Um, and then again, I'm not going to go into this but when he got out of prison in the late 90s you know, he worried the Philly mob guys that were in charge then that he was You know thinking about breaking off from them and making you know building his own thing and and had always kind of been this Uh, you know lightning rod and I think it started with his relationship with The bane's era guys Well, there was this racial politics in the underworld where You had some of the italian guys the bruno guys who viewed the black mafia is just a means to an end like sure We'll do business with them. We don't respect them. We don't like you. We're not we're not going to socialize with you We're not going to socialize with you. So we're still going to be bigoted But but we we can we can do business you see some of this i'm going back to Fake hollywood examples, but many saints of newark kind of captures some of that that dynamic Um, so this is now the late. This is now that many since your many saints of newark was late 60s This is the late 70s early 80s. Yeah, so, uh, there were some guys who I think were condescending to martirano because he he didn't He didn't have that sort of like kind of uh, he wasn't as uptight about work with african americans but there's there's an interesting dynamic with that second wave where they were able to have more kind of restore copacetic relations with The italians because with that first wave they were ultra violent, obviously And initially they have pretty good relations with the italians. They're you know, they're they're used as extortion guys They're dealing drugs with them But as the first wave black mafia becomes more powerful They start testing the boundaries of that relationship with the italians because there were italian numbers guys and uh bookmakers and loan sharks who were operating in black neighborhoods And the black mafia started shaking those shaking those guys down. They didn't care that you they were connected in theory Had ties to scarfo or Or tested our Bruno. Yeah, right. They were like if this is a black neighborhood you you you pay us and and that could have um exploded into something But harvey and christian when it were taken off the board before that that could You know, so with that second wave like bobein's and those guys kind of restored a more Uh, and certainly the third respectability, you know, um respectability factor and and and also like we're like We can work together. This doesn't have I should I should I should caveat that not that they weren't respected before They were respected because of the fear they Caused I think under bains as leadership and and the in the more polished guys The respect became okay now we respect you as businessmen as as well as we respect you as muscle as yeah So, um, and then those guys were able to not only reestablish Stronger ties with italians, but also again more mainstream society judges, you know And then by the mid 80s as as the crack era is is taking off A bunch of guys that were Aaron boys for nudie mims in the early 70s when they were in their And when they were like an elementary school junior high school They like, you know got nudie mims is His you know was cutty sark and and took his Is dry clean to the cleaners Uh, they with nudie's backing from prison nudie was co-signing them from behind bars They opened up shop the third generation kind of rebranded themselves the jbm the junior black mafia and uh took over the the crack game in north philly and west philly Under a guy named erin jones a j who was very close to nudie russell barns Was another one of these guys that mentored them And these guys Are the ones that are not erin jones specifically, but guys that were his contemporaries Are the guys that are still around It's not it's not the same organization. It used to be it's kind of a looser Less organized group, but there's still a a group of these guys that that rep jbm and The current crop of philly mafia leaders the guys that came after scarfo the joey merlinos of the world get along Swimmily, I mean get joey merlino In it It's not a secret if you go on social media you can see a lot of photos of Joey who's the alleged boss of the philly group now out partying With junior black mafia family members and the junior black mafia family members Love it For for the the leverage they get the currency they get From taking pictures with joey merlino Well, my understanding is also that they were friendly with joey even before joey became right joey, so to speak if that makes sense Yeah, um, they were both kind of coming up. Yep around the same time And uh, this is from uh, shawn's book. This is um regarding erin jones It was said that jbm leader erin jones was obsessed with the popular film the godfather and crafted his persona in the mold of marlin brandos character don vido, so they right they they love the idea of Being connected this goes back to uh, it's like i'm going back to all these hollywood examples, but carlitos way Yeah, I run with many guys connecting guys. So right there was currency Well, same with black mafia family the modern day black mafia family, you know, i've interviewed a big mich funnery and he is open about the fact that yeah, I The template for this Organization that I built this historic organization I read about myerlansky bugsy seagull Carlo gambino and I use those guys as the blueprint to build what I go Yeah, you know, uh shook knight was uh, he loved the movie bugsy. Yeah, you know The godfather too, but good fellas, but he loved you love bugs shook knight bought the the house that they had in casino Oh, yeah, right the the uh, not the sam rossine house. I don't know. I think it was the sam rossine house Yeah, um With the the house that deniro lived in on the golf course. Yeah, that's right. I shook knight lived there That's right and he bought it because of because of the movie But there's there was also this very public showing of support of joey that the junior black mafia during one of joey's early Trials where they showed up in force Uh, uh the support and and I believe you know more about philly than I do I believe word was sent to them to like, yeah, maybe not looking it doesn't look so great for us We appreciate we appreciate the sentiment Right, right. You don't have to necessarily show up in court and you know, I'll wrap show the flag We're gonna wrap it up, but I'll just give one, you know personal anecdote and again benny hit the hit the siren on this but uh, when I spent uh some time with Ralph and the tally before um I ended up leaving his his book project because of just, you know We couldn't see eye to eye on how to write the book. Uh, he Told me uh in in depth about when he became boss in the fall of 94 um He had uh, you know, not only did he have to go around and meet all of the Italian mob bosses in on the east coast go to new york and break bread with, you know, andy musher rousseau and and some other new york bosses to officially kind of confirm his status As the boss of bruno scarfo family But he went and did the same thing with at that point whoever the sitting leadership of of the junior black mafia was Ralph told me they had, you know, he had his people go talk to their people and then they met at a in the suite of a hotel and That the the the jbm guys like brought him presence as you know, here's the new don. Let me kiss your ring and give you presence It's interesting. There's the socioeconomics of it because in Philly the neighborhoods still butt up against each other. You have mixed income neighborhoods You have Italian neighborhoods next to black neighborhoods. That didn't happen in detroit, which is our you know our backyard where uh As the decades went by the tailings had less and less contact with with black and there was really only one They they weren't living by each other in detroit. You had it was more desperate. You had kind of one or two Mob groups within the toko's early crime family that dealt with the african-americans when All the rest of the group never did no jack toko would have never said he barely would sit down with his own Right with the other Italian guys let alone african-american dude. Um, but in philly things are still There's a lot more overlap between those communities in in the underworld Then you see like in a place like detroit where it's very segregated if that makes sense And I think at this point probably chicago too. I don't know. I don't know if the italian guys Buck with the black dudes in chicago that much chicago is you know, I think that's that's the um The city I would say that I think there was the least Amount of a nexus point. I think the nexus point existed. Yeah, but I think out of all the major cities There was the least amount of interactions. Yeah, I know that some of the you know, the mickey cobra's um Yeah mickey cogwell's guys were tied into outfit guys But yeah, well then that went bad too with gene kind. I tried to kill some of those dudes But uh, well that was before that gene kind is when they took over the black brackets and right um, but uh in new york and philly I can't speak to boss, but in new york and philly. I'm just saying the social economics There's still more interaction and mingling co mingling Oh and boston's in crime groups. Boston's another city where there wasn't That It's the most homogenized city i've ever been to in my life. Maybe even more than even even now Uh, you go there. There's only certain parts of the city where you see Uh a diverse Yeah, group of people Yeah, so I I don't think there has been historically a ton of interactions between the italian mob guys in massachusetts and the the black gangsters Yeah, but it makes sense that the the the social dynamics and the Demographics Then you see in the underworld there was a mirror that there was though as i'm again I'm digressing here, but there was back in the 60s and 70s the chandler brothers um Or the campbell brothers and deke chandler who were the big african-american crime lords had Had a deal had like a deal with uh patriarca and andrew low. I think we even that's an audio only episode I think But yeah, I think the black mafia is is fascinating You know, there's other stuff we could talk about check out again. Sean's book black brothers, ink We're gonna try to have sean on. He's a friend of the show Maybe talk about a little bit more about this but but actually his other book too, which is a totally different thing nba about tim donahy and the referee fixing games and He's just one of the great uh true crime Reporters, uh, you know in america right now and when we tip our hat to him Yeah, and he's a he's a uh, I believe he's a criminologist too. And he's a prof um, so check out his book and um, We appreciate everyone listening and and watching uh any final thoughts on Like share subscribe Yeah, and thanks for listening. Thanks for watching. We'll see you next time. I'm jimmy buchelotto. Scott bernstein out