Directed by: Sam Hobkinson
Fear City, the new Netflix three-part documentary series, starts with a harrowing depiction of a 1970's New York City under the thumb of organized crime. Lawlessness nearly ruled the day, and law enforcement agencies' efforts to put a dent in the mob's power were ineffective. Sure, the police would arrest lower level mobsters and put them away, but they were quickly replaced and the bosses of the infamous five New York crime families were insulated from prosecution.
Dr. Robert Blakey of Cornell University offered the FBI training in the little-used RICO statute passed in 1970. RICO allowed for entire crime organizations to be prosecuted for conspiracies and crimes if those were linked to the powerful bosses at the top. Now the FBI had its in to prosecute, but how to do this? Technological advents in surveillance and issuance of surveillance warrants made it possible for the FBI to build its cases against the Genovese, Bonnano, Gambino, et al crime families. The agents in charge of the investigations had to rely on nerve and ingenuity to plant bugs in the Mafia bosses' homes, offices, and cars. One agent arranged for phone and cable trouble in the home of Paul Castellano so an agent can enter his home disguised as a phone or cable company employee and plant the devices.
Many FBI agents, district attorneys, mobsters, and even Rudy Guiliani himself, who was the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York leading the prosecution of the mob in the 80's.
Listening to Guiliani speak with such intelligence and passion about the tightrope which was the
case against The Commission (the name for the five families' conglomerate), it is both sad and baffling that he has since become a punchline while working as a Trump lackey. It is difficult to see Guiliani interviewed and in archival footage and not think about his relationship with Trump.
Save for a few lapses, Fear City fascinatingly recreates the FBI investigation and replays snippets of the thousands and thousands of hours of surveillance tapes. You would think you were listening to excerpts from Goodfellas, but the voices were of real mobsters making decisions on whether to kill someone or commit some other heinous crime. They are chilling to hear.
After nearly a decade of building an intricate case against The Commission, the trial inevitably comes down to the jury decision. 150 counts and after five days of deliberation, Guiliani's confidence in a guilty verdict waned to the point where he was praying to whomever would listen to hear the word "guilty". The eventual guilty verdict would end Mafia reign in this country as we knew it. The former mobsters interviewed in Fear City understood this as well, and wound up leaving a life of crime.
A subtext in Fear City is a mutual respect and fear between law enforcement and the mob. Each has a job to do, and each side understood that. Killing an FBI agent would bring unwanted heat down on a mob family, while killing a high-level gangster would erase years of hard work and investigation. One mobster said to an agent who was sitting outside in a surveillance van, "You do what you gotta do, and I'll do what I gotta do. If you get me, then you get me," Another agent said after hearing Paul Castellano on phone conversations for years, he felt a strange kinship with him; to the point where he sent Castellano birthday and get-well cards. This was a world before No Country for Old Men, and further illustrates that movie's point.
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