Inside the American Mob

The five families of New York City continue to run the American mob with an iron fist, a million scams and a booming resort town named Atlantic City. The gambling mecca is overseen by the Philadelphia mob, which answers directly to New York. But when an old school Philadelphia don named Angelo Bruno is assassinated in 1980, a bloody new era begins.

La Cosa Nostra is ruling the streets of New York, but one man is determined to bring an end to the violence and corruption: U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Rudolph Giuliani. Giuliani mounts the most ambitious Mafia prosecution in history — a case that will bring together an unprecedented arsenal of murder investigations, electronic wiretaps, undercover agents and paid informants.

It's 1986, and a recent court ruling has landed most of the Mafia family bosses in jail, while on the streets of New York it's every man for himself. But one gangster sees chaos as an opportunity: John Gotti, a Gambino captain with a taste for unbridled violence and a vaulting ambition. NGC chronicles Gotti's rise to power as boss of the Gambino family as told by his closest Gambino associates and the former law enforcement officials determined to bring him down.

The American mob has reached a low point — it's the early '90s, and the heads of most of the five families have been imprisoned for life, leaving the families in disarray, torn apart by violence and suspicion. But one family survives these traumas intact by adhering to the strict code of silence: the Bonannos. They attract young recruits like Jimmy Calandra and his circle of friends, who become known as the Bath Avenue Crew.