How The Italian Mafia Conquered America

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About Thoughty2
Thoughty2 (Arran) is a British YouTuber and gatekeeper of useless facts. Thoughty2 creates mind-blowing factual videos about science, tech, history, opinion and just about everything else.
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Writing: Jonathan Grant
Editing: Sandeep Rai
Script Development: Steven Rix

[opiumextract]

My family came from Sicily in 1909. I asked my dad in my teens about the mafia and he just said that's something you don't talk about. Never asked again.

[JootjeJ]

It's a rare talent to not only getting away with an offhand Jimmy Savile joke, but also with not bothering to explain to the non-British audience. Well done!

[Sam-gthf]

Italian here.
My roots are in Sicily and Calabria.
I want to start by complimenting the effort you put in this work.
I want to give you all an update on the situation about the italian most powerful mafia in the present.
Now in Sicily there is less presence of the old mafia but, in Calabria (another region in the south italy), we see the presence of the "n'drangheta", one of the most powerful criminal organization in Europe.
The scary fact about this organization is that they don't call themselves " families ", they are families, and the new generations of these crime families are now being raised to be lawyers, accountants or bankers, in short, what scares us about the n'drangheta is that it is evolving, adapting and it is extremely difficult to stop an organization with so many branches in contexts ranging from criminal to legitimate business. There is no good mafia. The true Italians will always raise against the oppressors.

[angryginger]

"Like it or not, mafia mythology is murderously melded with the history of modern America." That's some damned good alliteration right there.

[Matt_Wildcard_Webster]

It is astonishing how many puns and sarcasm this one man can fit into his videos

[justinnull]

Congratulations on Five Million subscribers Thoughty2!!!!

[IshtheStomach]

"The promise of profit seem too pretty to pass up"

Props for such prolific alliteration

[johnjk]

Man, Rudy Juliani continues to surprise me more and more. I honestly wondered why that guy was such a big name in politics. But hearing for the first time that he was helping to fight the Mafia back in the day, is quite the surprise for me.

[shaggydude]

Absolute legend! “Hey thoughty2 here” love hearing that when a new video drops 🤗

[michaeljmeyer]

Mafia history is absolutely interesting.
In Minnesota, the Twin Cities area has an absolutely interesting history as being both a haven, and a crack down area. Mobsters who fled there from Chicago had a hell of a hay day there. It is often overlooked, but is an incredibly important area to the over arching story.

[musichire]

My ex wife's grand mother in the 1930's bumped into a man on a country road while driving her horse and wagon. She described the man driving a large black sedan that he was a sharp dresser with very good looks. They chatted for a bit and she said the man was quite polite and respectful. It was later learned that the man was Al Capone who had built a small cabin in the local area. Grandma passed at 98 but she had never forgotten that charming man on a country road. LOL. Supposedly his cabin still stand and not sure who owns it and it is a very eery place, the cabin is abandoned so anyone can take a quick tour if you can find it. Cheers!

[SharpestLiVES]

Still such impeccable wit, Arran. Especially enjoyed this as I've always been interested in Mafia history. Great video.

[ethanjacobrosca]

It would have been also worth mentioning that Charles Luciano actually played a role in helping the allies win WWII by helping the US gather intelligence through his ties with the Italian mafia.

[joz]

Ill in bed, so happy to have a new video from Thought2 to help pass the time.

[robobo]

As a man of Sicilian ancestry, this does put a smile on my face

[hristoskof]

I've seen a lot of videos on this topic, but this managed to present a new perspective and explained some details, that all the other videos missed! I loved it!🥰

[isaacyoder]

My brother was a groomsman for a college roommate who had a lot of Italian mafia men in his family. They rented out the most expensive venue in town, ordered one single long table for everyone, and catered in the city's most expensive restaurant's food for the party. Earlier in the day they went to a baseball game, and one the uncles bought the entire roll of tickets for a raffle. Funny thing was that the bride was from China, and her whole family was like stereotypical tourists who are oblivious to American culture. Half of the crowd was gaunt-faced mobsters, the other half was foreigners with no idea how an American wedding works lolol. One time the groom told my brother that he'd mentioned off-hand to one his uncles that he'd like a Northface jacket. His uncle just said "What size?", cause apparently he'd literally just hijacked a whole truckload full of them. This was 10 years ago in the midwest, so they're still definitely active.

[ketilljohnsonn]

Thoughty2 I really hope you see this I only found your videos around 3 weeks ago there so so sooo well done and ur humour is spot on I’ve watched so many and u have saved me In some very very cold mornings in Iceland (sorry if this didn’t make sense my English isn’t great and this was from Google translate)

[tobiasprice]

I’ve been watching this guy for years and tbf I can’t say he has a bad video, always interesting no matter what the topic

[wayward.philosopher]

My grandfather was the director of finance at Columbia St. Mary's hospital on Milwaukee's upper East side in the 1970s. In that position, he once helped one of the older members of the Balistreri family pay cash, in full in one lump sum, for a surgery he needed. Generally, that was not how the hospital did business, and initially, there was a lot of balking at this, I'm told. So it was a big deal that my grandfather stepped in and personally took care of the transaction. It was all above board on my grandfather's part, btw; He was a good German Catholic farm boy who was very loyal to the nuns who ran the hospital. But there after, whenever that Balistreri family member saw my grandfather, which was moderately often as my grandfather often had lunch at a Balistreri owned restaurant (They still own restaurants in Milwaukee) near the hospital, he called my grandfather "Kenny, " with great affection, and bought him lunch. My grandfather was in his mid forties at the time and hadn't gone by "Kenny" since he was a small child, but he didn't dare correct the man! Haha!