Lords of the Mafia with Robert Stack

Examine the biggest and most powerful organized crime syndicate since the Cosa Nostra: the Russian Mafiya, which inherited much of what was formerly KGB turf after the break-up of the Soviet Union.

Chinese Triads are quickly earning a reputation as one of the fiercest and most brutal organized crime gangs in the world. This episode explores the growth of various Triad crime syndicates situated throughout China.

A vast Mexican mafia moves drugs through U.S. and Mexican prisons, controlling politicians on both sides of the border.

Examine the influence of over 700 Japanese Yakuza gangs and the 'boryokudan' soldiers, the most violent of them all. These organized crime syndicates in Japan are major menaces all over the Pacific Rim. This episode details their extreme ruthlessness and strict codes of violence.

Examine the possible link between long-time mafia mob boss of New Orleans Carlos Marcelo and the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. The episode examines evidence that proves Marcelo may have had a hand in the plan to eliminate him and offers a brief history of organized crime in New Orleans.

Explore the Neopolitan and Sicilian Cosa Nostra borgatas and their mob ties to American organized crime as well as infiltration of Italian business and government. This episode details American mafiosi re-establishing ties to their ancestral homeland, rediscovering old partners in crime and creating new ventures such as drug trafficking from Pakistan and Afghanistan.

This episode examines the Latin American drug cartels and primarily focuses on Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela, the one-time boss of the Colombian cartel Cali, and how he became a major player in a North American smuggling operation following the death of Medellín chief Pablo Escobar.

Examine the Lucchese borgata, one of New York's five families of the Italian-American crime dynasty, beginning with the emergence of the Lucchese crime family founded by boss Gaetano "Three Fingers Brown" Lucchese. This episode details how they made their marks on the garment industry, declined in the '70s and '80s and virtually disintegrated in the 1990s.

Examine Jamaican "posses" and other Caribbean gangs that are making names for themselves in cities like London and New York through their primary rackets such as smuggling drugs and weapons, piracy and huge money-laundering operations.

Take a detailed look at the specifics that shaped these modern, urban American street gangs into what they are today.

Vietnamese groups of criminals are predominantly made up of refugees from Vietnam. Explore the history of such groups and their natures, famous for quickly resorting to violence and specializing in home-invasion robberies and computer theft. This episode also details all-female Vietnamese gangs.

The unification of the European economy led to the rise of organized crime in Western Europe. This episode details how major industrial nations such as France, Germany and Great Britain have experienced a significant increase in Mafia activities such as drug trafficking and computer crimes.

Organized criminal syndicates have sprung up on every corner of the planet. Take a look at the ways mobsters from different countries are dealing with each other and also how they threaten to control and enslave businesses, governments and populations in dozens of countries.

The Cold War is over and nuclear weapon development has diminished, but the stock piles remained. An underworld organization specializes in obtaining nuclear materials, noting the prospect of nuclear devastation is greater now than anytime in the history of nuclear arms, which began over five decades ago.

They pledge to defend the law and represent the will of the people, but time and again, elected officials have sold their souls and betrayed us all for mob money. Once an organized crime group gets a grip on society, it is very difficult to break. Why? It's simple! Crime bosses know that the secret to maintaining their power is to corrupt their greatest adversary: the government.

Journey into the dark side of the soul - into the nightmare world of Mafia hitman - wherein the secret of violent madness as you probe the minds of the killers from the underworld.