Original Gangsters Podcast · Original Gangsters, a True Crime Talk Podcast

Wise Guys in the White House - Gangsters, Presidents, and the Deals They Made with Author Eric Dezenhall

·57 min·3 clips

Trump Tower used concrete companies controlled by the Colombo, Gambino, and Genovese families.

1. Original Gangsters Podcast centers this episode on Wise Guys in the White House, a book about presidents, organized crime, and the deals between them. 2. Scott Bernstein hosts Eric Dezenhall, whom he introduces as an author, historian, and true crime expert, and Dezenhall brings research from his book and his access to organized-crime material. 3. Dezenhall frames the book as an attempt to separate what can be proven from the mythology around mob power and presidential politics. 4. He says he grew up around organized crime in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, then later worked in Ronald Reagan’s White House at age 22. 5. A White House boss once told him that New Jersey was “mafia,” and that comment pushed him to ask who really had power in America. 6. He argues that the mafia was very powerful for a long time in the 20th century, but not that it was literally running the country. 7. He says presidents and business people who used the mob often came out ahead of the mob itself. 8. Dezenhall uses Andrew Jackson and Jean Lafitte in New Orleans as an early example of a government needing help from criminals. 9. He says Joe Kennedy knew how to “walk on the line” in the liquor business and sought legitimacy rather than simple criminal branding. 10. He contrasts Kennedy’s approach with Trump’s real-estate strategy, especially the use of concrete firms tied to the Colombo, Gambino, and Genovese families. 11. One of Dezenhall’s central examples is Trump Tower, where he says Trump used generous contracts to buy labor peace. 12. He says a prosecutor friend challenged the arrangement as potentially compensatory, but no one has proven the deal was illegal after 45 years. 13. Dezenhall also describes Meyer Lansky as a figure whose later reputation was inflated beyond his actual reach in the 1960s and 1970s. 14. He says federal investigators were chasing the Lansky of the 1940s and 1950s, not the Lansky who existed later. 15. A story about Nixon’s bank account leads to a robbery in Southern California where thieves allegedly blew the roof off a bank and took $9 million. 16. Dezenhall says Joe Biden’s 1972 Senate race was affected by Teamsters-related action in Delaware and credits Frank Sheeran with helping shift the press operation. 17. The tone stays conversational and argumentative, with Bernstein pushing examples and Dezenhall answering with specific names, deals, and historical incidents. 18. The episode uses memoir, political history, and organized-crime lore rather than a formal lecture or a pure interview format. 19. Listeners interested in presidential history and mob politics will get the most from it. 20. Listeners wanting a clean partisan debate or a short news recap may skip it.

As heard by us

A lively mob-and-politics conversation that keeps history and power in the same frame.

Original Gangsters Podcast uses this episode to trace the overlap between politics and organized crime, with Scott Bernstein guiding a conversation with Eric Desenhal about Wise Guys in the White House.

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You want the mob, the White House, and the politics in between.

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