hollywoodland
Humphrey Bogart: Mob Assassins, Rat Packs, and the Downfall of Murder, Inc.
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Murder for hire. Murder for business. Murder for profit. In the 1940s, a crew called Murder, Inc. protected the interests of the Commission, a collective of American gangsters who banded together to run the American underworld like a legit business. Murder, Inc. thugs shot, stabbed, and strangled upwards of 1,000 snitches who dared rat on the mob. But the mob never bargained that their chief executive executor would himself turn rat. Or that the story of their downfall would be laid out for all to see on the big screen – pursued and prosecuted by Humphrey Bogart, who proved what it really takes to be a tough guy.
Sources
A Brotherhood Betrayed: The Man Behind the Rise and Fall of Murder, Inc., by Michael Cannell
Tough without a Gun: The Life and Extraordinary Afterlife of Humphrey Bogart, by Stefan Kanfer
Bogart, by A.M. Sperber and Eric Lax
Humphrey Bogart, by Nathaniel Benchley
Did Humphrey Bogart Want to be Humphrey Bogart? (The New Yorker)
Three Drinks Ahead with Humphrey Bogart (Modern Drunkard Magazine)
Lauren Bacall's remarkably honest account of Humphrey Bogart's death (The Week)
Humphrey Bogart: The last Hollywood hero (Far Out)
Lauren Bacall on Charlie Rose (YouTube)
Lepke shows fear as he goes to chair (NY Times)
The Simple Art of Murder (The Atlantic)
You Must Remember This on the Blacklist, Humphrey Bogart, and The African Queen (Slate)
Credits
Hosted by Jake Brennan.
Written by Zeth Lundy.
Copy edited by James Sullivan.
Scored and mixed by Matt Tahaney.
Additional music and score elements by Ryan Spraker.
*illustrations by Avi Spivak @avispivak