Expedition Underworld

Before New York: How the Mafia Began in New Orleans

Long before New York’s Five Families dominated organized crime, men like Charles Matranga, Joseph Macheca, and the Stuppagghieri of Monreale were building power in the streets of New Orleans. From the assassination of Police Chief David Hennessy to the 1891 New Orleans lynchings—the largest mass lynching in American history—this podcast follows the people, violence, and political corruption that shaped the early Mafia in America. Each episode dives into mafia history, Sicilian immigration, organized crime, true crime, and the forgotten stories that connected New Orleans to Tampa, Dallas, Los Angeles, and New York. If you enjoy historical documentaries, true crime, mafia history, and cinematic storytelling grounded in real events, Before New York is for you. Because before New York became the center of organized crime… the story had already begun.