Enter The Underworld.

Mob History in New York City

New York's Five Families — the Gambino, Lucchese, Genovese, Bonanno, and Colombo organizations — controlled the city's criminal underworld for most of the 20th century. The structures they operated from are still standing: the Ravenite Social Club at 247 Mulberry Street in Little Italy was John Gotti's headquarters until the FBI bugged the building's upstairs apartment. Sparks Steak House at 210 East 46th Street was where Paul Castellano, boss of the Gambino family, was gunned down in 1985 on Gotti's orders — the hit that made Gotti the most famous mobster in America.

The Mafia's influence on New York extended far beyond violence. The Five Families controlled the Fulton Fish Market for decades, taking a cut of every transaction. They ran concrete companies that built the city's skyscrapers, controlled the garment industry's trucking, and influenced the outcome of labor disputes that shaped the city's economy. The Commission, created by Lucky Luciano in 1931 to settle disputes between the families without bloodshed, met in various locations around the city — including a penthouse on the Upper West Side and a social club in Brooklyn. The infrastructure of organized crime was as complex and far-reaching as the city government itself.

StoryHunt's mob history walks take you to the actual locations where New York's organized crime history unfolded. Your phone delivers clues drawn from court records, FBI surveillance transcripts, and historical accounts. You'll walk past social clubs, investigate former meeting places, and decode the network of locations that connected the Five Families' operations. This isn't a Hollywood version of the mob — it's the real geography of power, violence, and influence that shaped modern New York.