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This is Later with Lee Matthews the
Lee Matthews Podcast. More of what you

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here weekday afternoons on the Drive.
Matthew Burkebeck is an investigative journalist and author

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of six books, including The Quiet
Don, Deconstructing Sammy, and The Deadly

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Deadly Secret, as well as A
Beautiful Child. As you can tell,

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he seems to be fascinated with what's
going on with mob culture. His newest

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creation is called The Life We Chose. It's about William Big Billy Delia,

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and I'll go ahead and let you, matt enlighten us as to who Big

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Billy is. So Billy Delia was
the head of the Buffalino crime family,

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which was based in northeastern Pennsylvania beginning
of nineteen ninety four, but before that

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he had spent thirty years with Russell
Buffalo, who was obviously at the head

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of the family, but he was
arguably the most powerful in evential organized crime

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figure in the twentieth century. Buffalino
went back to the nineteen twenties. By

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the nineteen fifties, he had casinos
in Cuba. In the early sixties he

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had been recruited by the CIA,
and he's so called Cia mafia plots to

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kill Fidel Castro in nineteen seventy five. He was one of the chief suspects

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and the disappearance of Jimmy Haffa in
During the latter part of his career,

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he had Billy Gillia by his side, and Billy became his so called son.

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And it's all written about in the
life We chose with Matthew Birkbeck who

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has written all about this, and
that these were more powerful than even the

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Gambinos or the Marcellos. Yeah,
you know, it's funny, I asked

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Bill. I asked Gillia this question. I said it was Russell ever on

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the mafia commission, and he said
Russell wasn't on the commission. He said

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Russell was above the commission. Whenever
there was the major decision to be made

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with an organized crime circles throughout the
nation, they always conferred with Russell.

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Russell's power came from his association with
the Teamsters Union. He placed his cousin

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there in the nineteen forties with Jimmy
Haffa, William Buffalo, and William Buffalino

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became the general counsel. So that
made Russell and incredibly important within the nation,

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particularly in the teamsters, their unions, strikes, loans through the pension

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funds and whatnot. So he was
politically powerful. He was called in to

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even mediate over you know, entertainment
issues, business, political or whatever.

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Russell. It was no one more
powerful than Russell in the twentieth century.

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The book is about William Billy Delia
and the name of the book is The

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Life We chose an unparalleled portrait of
crime, power, money and family.

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And as there was this connection with
the CIA and try to unseat Fidel Castro,

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I gather there's a Kennedy connection here
too. Yeah, Russell and Bobby

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Kennedy hated each other. Russell have
testified before the Rackets Committees in ninth late

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nineteen fifties, and Kennedy took particular
interest in Buffalino. And in this report

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that was written in the early nineteen
sixties by the committee, they called Buffalino

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one of the most powerful and violent
mobsters in the country. So there was

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there was no love lost between them
or with any of the other Kennedys.

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There's a scene in a book in
nineteen eighty eighty one where they send Russell's

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going to prison and they're trying to
get him apart, and they said Muhammad

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Ali and his trainer Angela Dundee to
go speak with Ted Kennedy about a pardon

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for Russell Buffalano. When he finds
out it's about Russell, he fell us

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in both out of his office in
Washington. So that gives you an idea

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of the relationship between the kenned Dais
and Buffalo Leader. And was there a

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relationship with John or any involvement in
that infamous plot that had always been suspected

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never proven. You know, Billy
I spent over a year with Billy Gilliam,

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and you know he hinted at things
with the Kennedy's. I tried to

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stay away from the Kennedy's given so
much has been written about it about it,

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but he did hint towards it.
But you know, Billy became Billy

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became an incredibly powerful individual himself.
When Russell was in prison in the nineteen

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eighties, Billy became the day facto
hit of the family and he assumed Russell's

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position as the negotiator, the mob's
negotiator. And you know one instance he

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actually in nineteen eighty eight, he
was called to mediate a situation involving Donald

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Trump in the Mob in which Trump
wanted Michael Jackson to perform in Atlantic City

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at his casinos and Jackson's manager said
no. So Trump went to two big

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time mobsters in California and a threatened
the manager Nate fold and Billy, and

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Billy put an end to it.
But also what he became Michael Jackson's co

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manager for his services and Selina dispute
with Trump. So for the next year

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or so, Billy Delia, it
was Michael Jackson's co manager who was on

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tour with him on the bad Tour. Did Michael Jackson know that this guy

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had mob connections? Michael Jackson knew. I spent a lot of the time

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with Billy. She's in the book
and you can see, you know,

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there are a number of conversations that
they had with each other. Billy was

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said officially to be a security consultant, but everybody knew behind the scenes that

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he was now Frank Bileos, who
was the manager, he was now his

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partner. The name of the book
is The Life We Chose. It's about

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William Big Billy Delia, and it's
written by Matthew Birkbeck, who's with us

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now Matthew. Then there's the other
entertainer, Frank Sinatra, who's spent a

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lot of time trying to distance himself
with his relationship with various mobsters. Yeah.

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So there's there's a scene in the
book UM when Billy just the book

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is basically about it's really a father
in the son's story UM with an organized

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crime setting, but Billy needs Sinatra. In early nineteen seventies in New York,

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he goes into a restaurant UM that
Sinatra had favored in with Buffalino when

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he take a table in the back
and it and Russell, Buffalino's told that

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it was Sinatra's table, and you
know, Russell tells him he doesn't really

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care and if Sinatras shows up,
you know, it's only come see me.

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And Sinatra showed it up and he
ends up sitting down with Russell and

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with Billy. Um. So it's
a pretty interesting it was a pretty interesting

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scene. It's also there's a photo
in the book that's never been seen before,

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UM with Russell and Sinatra. So
Sinatra, I mean, it's well

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documented Sinatra's relationships various mobsters that went
back for many, many years, and

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the fact that he knew Russell Buffalino
was no surprise, No, and I

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don't I don't see a problem with
it at all. I want to say,

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probably a lot of Synatra's career would
not have happened if it had not

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been for various organized crime members getting
him singing lessons, getting him gigs,

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that kind of thing. Yeah,
I mean, they just permeated the entire

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entertainment industry. As you're reading the
book, because Billy, when he becomes

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the head of the family in nineteen
ninety four, you know, Billy's called

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on to handle a number of issues
under the table involving people like Tony Brax,

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did this rapper name corrupt? Big
time male model Fabio? The TV

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show Baywatch, and the producers that
were behind that. So it's a fascinating

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read into how you know, the
world isn't black and white. You know.

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The one thing I learned during this
book is that there's a lot I

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always knew there was some gray in
life. There's a lot of gray area,

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and it's like Billy Bilia that populate
that area. And the book The

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Life we Chose Matt bergback is with
us in my career, early in my

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career, I had. I had
some business dealings with a live DJ.

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He was kind of a goofy kid, but ended up dating Carlos Marcello's granddaughter

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and got to meet Carlos Marcello at
one of the family gatherings and I said,

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well, what is it like being
in the midst of all of that?

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And he said, they're all really
nice guys. Was a big Billy,

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A nice guy, you know he
was, and he's a fearsome individual.

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I knew who he was. The
thing about Billy his dad. He

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had been arrested in two thousand and
six for money law drink charges, and

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various government agencies wanted to talk to
him, FBI, Service, Home Insecurity,

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but particularly the FBI because he didn't
want to talk to him about Jimmy

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Haffa and when he knew at halfa
and Billy wouldn't talk to anyone, So

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you know, he had an associated
actually reach out to me in twenty twenty

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and then we started talking and it
took about three four months to get him

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going. But he's charming. I
mean, he was charming. I could

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see him. You know, he
wasn't born into this life like a lot

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of guys are. He kind of
fell into it because he met Russell and

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came to love Russell. But he
could have been a success in any other

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industry, you know, public relations, marketing, whatnot. On the flip

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side of that, you know that
since he was the head of an organized

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crime family, that he was involved
in some very heavy and brutal things.

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But when you meet people and I
even grew up you know, I grew

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up in Brooklyn and we had neighbors
that were in the mob, and you

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know, on the surface, they're
just regular people. You know, you

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do not really privated that world.
But if you cross them, that's when

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they're no longer nice guys that you
know, that's exactly true. That's the

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point where they basically, you know, flip a switch and they become that

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guy that you think they are.
Yeah, the life we chose as the

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book. Matthew Burkebeck is the investigative
journalist that has written it. It's a

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fascinating read, especially if you love
this behind the scenes stuff about organized crime

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in the United States. And I
thank you for joining us, matt I

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thank you thanks for listening to Later
with Lee Matthews the Lee Matthews Podcast,

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and remember to listen to the Drive
Live weekday afternoons from five to seven and

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