Political corruption and Atlantic City: two things that go together, according to City Confidential, which paints a pretty corrupt picture of this resort-gambling area that has certainly seen its ups-and-downs in the past 100 years.
Atlantic City "is a monument to greed," narrator Paul Winfield states early on. "This Las Vegas of the Eastern Seabord.....is a beach town built on dirty deeds, easy money and legalized gambling." This really, to be honest, wasn't a very dramatic crime story. It's one of the lesser ones I've seen in the many episodes I've watched. The crime is extortion, with the city's first elected mayor taking money from a Mafia bigwig in return for helping him get into the big money of casinos.
Anyway, Atlantic City has always been interesting and runs the gamut from exceedingly seedy to a lot of glitz and glamor, depending, as comedian Alan King is quoted here, on whether you first see the city from the water or from land.
Whatever, it was a very hot spot around the 1920s, started going downhill and then was revived by the Miss America contest, then totally collapsed in the '60s, and then came back when gambling became legalized there in the '70s. Maybe it's better now; as an outsider who has never been there, it's hard to tell.
City Confidential says one thing has remained the same: it's a whole lot nicer in appearance before Labor Day. When the cold sets in, it isn't so glamorous no matter how many neon lights light up the casinos. The casinos are what run the town. The current mayor says fishing is the second on the list of the town's businesses. It employs about 100 people. Gambling employs 50,000. That about tells you what the makeup of the place tends to be, he states.
The first mayor of this town wasn't elected until 1982. Previous, the job has always been appointed. That first election is what causes the crime story to be told here on City Confidential. It's all about that first mayor, Michael Matthews, and his connection a big mob boss from Philadelphia, Nicodemo Scarfo and his top guy, Phillip Leonetti. Scarfo was known at "Little Nicki" and Leonetti was "Crazy Phil." I kid you not..
The mayor, a liberal Democrat running in a traditionally Republican town, was a decided underdog and was running as a guy who was going to clean up the town, make it a nice family place. He had good intentions, but when he had no finances for his campaign, he wound up in bed with the gangsters. One thing led to another and it came to abrupt head when the FBI used a sting-type operation and got the mayor making deals with Leonetti. Both were arrested and sent to jail.
Matthews is interviewed on this program several times and continues to express his innocence, claiming he never took a penny. He doesn't come across as too believable. City Confidential, although not supporting Matthews' claims, still is quick to point out that every mayor since Matthews has been in some kind of hot water, too.
Atlantic City "is a monument to greed," narrator Paul Winfield states early on. "This Las Vegas of the Eastern Seabord.....is a beach town built on dirty deeds, easy money and legalized gambling." This really, to be honest, wasn't a very dramatic crime story. It's one of the lesser ones I've seen in the many episodes I've watched. The crime is extortion, with the city's first elected mayor taking money from a Mafia bigwig in return for helping him get into the big money of casinos.
Anyway, Atlantic City has always been interesting and runs the gamut from exceedingly seedy to a lot of glitz and glamor, depending, as comedian Alan King is quoted here, on whether you first see the city from the water or from land.
Whatever, it was a very hot spot around the 1920s, started going downhill and then was revived by the Miss America contest, then totally collapsed in the '60s, and then came back when gambling became legalized there in the '70s. Maybe it's better now; as an outsider who has never been there, it's hard to tell.
City Confidential says one thing has remained the same: it's a whole lot nicer in appearance before Labor Day. When the cold sets in, it isn't so glamorous no matter how many neon lights light up the casinos. The casinos are what run the town. The current mayor says fishing is the second on the list of the town's businesses. It employs about 100 people. Gambling employs 50,000. That about tells you what the makeup of the place tends to be, he states.
The first mayor of this town wasn't elected until 1982. Previous, the job has always been appointed. That first election is what causes the crime story to be told here on City Confidential. It's all about that first mayor, Michael Matthews, and his connection a big mob boss from Philadelphia, Nicodemo Scarfo and his top guy, Phillip Leonetti. Scarfo was known at "Little Nicki" and Leonetti was "Crazy Phil." I kid you not..
The mayor, a liberal Democrat running in a traditionally Republican town, was a decided underdog and was running as a guy who was going to clean up the town, make it a nice family place. He had good intentions, but when he had no finances for his campaign, he wound up in bed with the gangsters. One thing led to another and it came to abrupt head when the FBI used a sting-type operation and got the mayor making deals with Leonetti. Both were arrested and sent to jail.
Matthews is interviewed on this program several times and continues to express his innocence, claiming he never took a penny. He doesn't come across as too believable. City Confidential, although not supporting Matthews' claims, still is quick to point out that every mayor since Matthews has been in some kind of hot water, too.