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Remembering "The Last Days of the Sicilians"

Investigative reporter Ralph Blumenthal's new book takes a look at what the FBI called "the pizza connection": a heroin smuggling operation spearheaded by the Italian mafia in the United States. Pizza restaurants were used as drug fronts.

27:42
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Other segments from the episode on August 19, 1988

Fresh Air with Terry Gross, August 19, 1988: Interview with Ralph Blumenthal; Commentary on songs from the 1920s; Interview with Errol Morris; Commentary on Louis Black.
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07:00

Pop Songs of the 1920s

Folk singer Michael Cooney says that several classic songs from the early 20th century have verses that never made it onto recordings or sheet music. He joins Fresh Air to sing some of those forgotten words.

Commentary
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09:45

A Sea of Conflicting Facts

Errol Morris thinks of himself as much a detective as a documentary filmmaker. Known for his off-beat subjects, he's adopted a more serious tone with his new movie, The Thin Blue Line, about a murder investigation in Dallas. Errol believes the man sentenced to death for the crime, Randall Dale Adams, is innocent.

Interview

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21:27

Journalist Ralph Blumenthal

Journalist Ralph Blumenthal writes for The New York Times. He covered the trial following the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center. He’ll discuss the information about the workings of Osama Bin Laden’s organization that came to light during the trial.

Interview
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24:38

Journalists Cover the "Outrage" of the Tawana Brawley Case

New York Times journalists Ralph Blumenthal and E.R. Shipp were part of a five-person team who investigated the supposed rape and murder of Tawana Brawley, a fifteen-year-old African American girl in Wappingers Falls, New York. A book about the public controversy, and how the reporters concluded the incident was a hoax, is called Outrage.

Interview
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24:11

Frank Friel Brings Down the Philadelphia Mob

Frank Friel was the co-director and chief investigator of the Philadelphia Police/FBI Organized Crime Task Force, which dismantled the Nicodemo Scarfo-led mafia in the 1980s. The gang's violent acts terrorized the Philadelphia area; they also infiltrated Atlantic City's casinos. Friel has a new book about that time, called Breaking the Mob.

Interview

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52:30

Daughter of Warhol star looks back on a bohemian childhood in the Chelsea Hotel

Alexandra Auder's mother, Viva, was one of Andy Warhol's muses. Growing up in Warhol's orbit meant Auder's childhood was an unusual one. For several years, Viva, Auder and Auder's younger half-sister, Gaby Hoffmann, lived in the Chelsea Hotel in Manhattan. It was was famous for having been home to Leonard Cohen, Dylan Thomas, Virgil Thomson, and Bob Dylan, among others.

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43:04

This fake 'Jury Duty' really put James Marsden's improv chops on trial

In the series Jury Duty, a solar contractor named Ronald Gladden has agreed to participate in what he believes is a documentary about the experience of being a juror--but what Ronald doesn't know is that the whole thing is fake.

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