Fox Nation’s latest season of Stories of the American Mafia shines a spotlight on former U.S. attorney and former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani’s pivotal work against the Mafia in the 1980s. Narrated by Eric Shawn, the episode titled “Rudy and the RICO Act” details how Giuliani helped create the landmark Mafia Commission Trial of 1985, which indicted eleven leaders from the city’s infamous Five Families.
RICO changed the game
Prior to the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, prosecutors were forced to build cases against individual mobsters on a conspiratorial basis. As former NYPD inspector Paul Mauro explains, “When you have a vacuum like that, you’re gonna have this shadow government step in.” The RICO law allowed authorities to charge entire criminal enterprises for acts such as murder‑for‑hire, extortion, and labor racketeering, making it possible to hold whole organizations accountable.
Giuliani’s strategy
Giuliani’s approach, described by former Gambino associate Louis Ferrante as “cutting the head off the Hydra,” focused on top‑down disruption. Ferrante argues that the Mafia never fully recovered because the new leadership lacked the talent of the original bosses. Former FBI undercover operative Giovanni Rocco also joins the series to provide analysis of the broader impact of these prosecutions.
What the series covers
In addition to Giuliani’s story, the season explores the rise and fall of Murder, Inc., the murder of William “Billy Batts” Bentvena, and FBI agent Joe Pistone’s undercover takedown of the Bonanno family. All five episodes are now streaming exclusively on the Fox Nation platform for subscribers.
Viewers interested in a deeper look at how the RICO statute reshaped the fight against organized crime can watch the series on Fox Nation’s on‑demand service.
Original reporting: Fox News (HLL/CB) — read the source article.
