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Undeniable power. Unbelievable stories. Unlikely origins. Kingpins follows the rise and fall of rulers of the underworld. Every Friday, we examine the leaders of organized crime rings, and how money and power corrupted and changed their communities. What makes a kingpin or queenpin, and how can we stop them? Kingpins is part of the Parcast Network, and a production of Cutler Media. New episodes release on Fridays.
77 Episodes
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1Every Monday through Friday, Parcast Daily filters through all of your favorite Parcast shows to highlight one timely and relevant episode premiering each day. You might hear about a calculating killer on Female Criminals, delve into the minds of history and fiction’s greatest bad guys on Villains, or spiral down into intrigue and speculation on Conspiracy Theories. Whatever your tastes, you’ll always get something new on Parcast Daily.
Enjoy this exclusive clip from our featured episode: “Bohemian Grove Pt. 1.” To finish this episode, subscribe to PARCAST DAILY free on Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts!
As Prohibition amplified chaos in the streets of Chicago, federal agent Eliot Ness took to targeting the city's own mob royalty—Al Capone—in hopes of quashing the bootlegging that lined the pockets of gangsters and crooked cops.
At age thirty-three, Paul Le Roux had his hands in everything from gold to guns to illicit drugs. By early 2009, his pharmacy network, RX Limited, was bringing in hundreds of millions of dollars. But it was his doomed tuna fishing venture in Somalia that eventually led to his downfall.
He was an expert computer programmer and an early adopter of the internet. In the mid-2000s, Paul Le Roux made millions through online prescription drugs and helped contribute to the current opioid addiction crisis.
On the last Sunday of every month, Parcast Rewind replays a classic episode of Kingpins that you might have missed!
Frank Lucas found his way into the New York City underworld, and under the wing of a man known as the Harlem Godfather, emerged as one of the most powerful drug kingpins of all time.
As the other Harlem policy bankers fall at the hands of Dutch Schultz, Stephanie St. Clair stood firm. Unfortunately for St. Clair, Schultz had political muscles and members of the NYPD on his payroll.
When she was just a teenager, Stephanie St. Clair immigrated to the United States from the French West Indies without a penny to her name. By the 1920s, with $10,000 mysteriously in her hand, she opened up her own numbers racket and became one of the most successful racketeers in Harlem.
Known as the “Ivory Queen,” Yang Feng Glan was a Chinese smuggler who helped move nearly 2-tons of illegal ivory out of Tanzania throughout the 2000s.
Here’s one of our listeners’ most requested episodes of 2019: By 1983, Rick Ross had risen to become the reigning kingpin of South Central LA. But when he made a deal with a new supplier named Danilo Blandon, he ended up getting into much more than he’d bargained for.
Here’s one of our listeners’ most requested episodes of 2019: In the 1970s, cocaine was seen as a “rich man’s drug” — reserved for the wealthy elites in the Hollywood Hills. That is, until 1979, when 19-year-old Rick Ross found a way to market it to the masses in South Central LA.
To surveil the seedy underworld of organized crime in the 1940s and 50s, a special undercover unit of the LAPD was created to track the city's most notorious gangsters, including Mickey Cohen and Jack Dragna.
He ruled his family with an iron fist. But among his peers, Carlo Gambino was considered so fair that when he became head of the Commission, he earned the title “Boss of All Bosses.” Throughout the 1960s and ’70s, no criminal decision passed without his say.
After growing up surrounded by the Sicilian mafia in the early 1900s, Carlo Gambino immigrated to America and put the knowledge to use. In an endless hail of bullets, Gambino solidified his status and reputation in the underworld.
In 1940, after the charges against Siegel were dismissed for the murder of Harry Greenberg, he reinvented himself in the deserts of Las Vegas and began his sordid affair with Virginia Hill.
No man was feared in New York during the 20s and 30s more than Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel. After teaming up with Meyer Lansky, Bugsy made his bones carrying out vicious murders for the mob.
Even while he was on the run, Dawood Ibrahim continued to rule Mumbai's underworld with an iron fist. But as his riches increased, so did his appetite for violence. And in 1992, his operations expanded into terrorism.
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Dawood Ibrahim, a young Muslim-born Indian would rise from a small time street thief to gang leader, bringing a more businesss-like—and ruthless—approach. And in the process, he would become one of the richest kingpins in history.
As the 90s approached, it was time for El Patron’s last stand. Many innocent Colombians would die in Pablo Escobar’s war against extradition before he finally reached a compromise with the government.
From multi-millionaire Colombian Congressman to political pariah—once Pablo Escobar’s criminal history was exposed, all bets were off. As his facade of legitimacy in the early 80s washed away, he vowed to take back control using the weapons he knew best: coercion, bribery and violence.
With a violent childhood and mantra of “smuggling, bribery and murder,” witness the beginnings of Pablo Escobar’s cocaine empire in Medellín in the 1970s, and how he expanded it exponentially by joining forces with other Colombian drug traffickers.
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Judi Kingsman
excellent pronunciation of Papua New Guinea 💖⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rob
🙄
Tena
I so love listening about the various monsters on here. I like to compare it to what I know, what I think I know, and what I definitely don't know.
Co B.
👍
Orkaganon of Torkaganon
the phrase "make it rain" was coined by Detroit Kingpin Maserati Rick, not Big Merch.
Orkaganon of Torkaganon
so .. crack cocaine kingpin gets unfair trial, due to an all white jury, even though he flipped multiple cities upside down... ruining his own ppl's lives. I gotta say, you guys can be absurdly pathetic. under what planet is a dope dealer that flips the world on its head deserving of sympathy? stop with your cowardly pandering.
Shelby Ross
I freaking love this podcast !!! I can't get enough!!! 😃😃
Orkaganon of Torkaganon
"3 white membrs of the KKK" that's about the most moronic pandering to modern PC culture I've heard j. a while. when's the last time you saw or heard of a Chinese or Indian klansmen? what a joke
Rosco
"some of you have asked how to help us" is hilarious. no one asked how to help you. the advertising team help you. still, apart from the loose facts, these are entertaining casts if you don't take them too seriously.
John Campbell
so good love kingpins
Oscar Obians
Incredible! That's a rather unexpected turn in an already captivating story.
c s
Five stars!
Scott
sum info is wrong try reading the book https://www.amazon.co.uk/Uncle-Al-Capone-Deirdre-Marie/dp/0982845103/ref=mp_s_a_1_10?keywords=al+capone+book&qid=1563530576&s=gateway&sprefix=al+capone+b&sr=8-10 written by his niece
Justin Weeter
This is by far my favorite podcast. I listen to a lot of podcasts too.😂❤️
Nate Scholl
five star for sure. and I like the voices. they give the podcast a serious feel
Teddy Wells
Why advertise the podcast we're listening to on the podcast we are listening to? I've lost count of the number of episodes of this podcast that has the advertisementfor this podcast on them.
Judi Kingsman
enjoyed ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Judi Kingsman
really good ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rolanda Ross
I don't know why I've been so obsessed with Big Meech. ...
Victoria Fernandes
Amazing podcast!