#17: Interview with Sam Carlino

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Episode OVERVIEW

n today's episode, I do my first-ever interview with author Sam Carlino, who is is in fact the Grandson of the infamous Colorado gangster Pete Carlino, dubbed in the late 1920's as the "The Al Capone of Southern Colorado" by the local media. The Carlino brothers (Pete and Sam) established a bootlegging empire beginning around 1916 until 1931 when they were murdered by rivals.

We discuss the following:

Introduction to who Sam is and his family background
Background on Sam's grandfather Pete and great Uncle's Sam and Carlo
How the Carlino's got started in bootlegging
The war with the Danna family (and what the feud going back to Sicily was really about)
The Carlino's relationship with Joe Roma relationship
The 1931 Bootlegger's Convention in Denver, Colorado
The death of his Great Uncle Sam Carlino
The death of Pete Carlino
The death of Joe Roma and who he believes killed Roma
The connections of Pete Carlino's death with Salvatore Maranzano's murder in New York City (and the legend of the Night of the Sicilian Vespers)
How the death of Sam's grandfather and great uncle affected his family
How he found out he was related to the "mob"
Sam's upbringing and what led him to write his book, 'Colorado's Carlino Brothers: A Bootlegging Empire'

Additionally, be sure to buy Sam’s Book, Colorado’s Carlino Brothers: A Bootlegging Empire.

Episode Transcript

Episode Teaser

“That the cars, you know, passed each other on the highway there on the road going over the bridge, and that’s when they saw opportunity.

And I can’t say for sure who instigated the fight, but they were in a war. After Pellegrino Scaglia was killed they were in a war.

So, first opportunity they had to fight it out, they went for it!”

Episode Intro

Hello everybody and welcome back to another episode of The Member’s Only Podcast. I am your host Jacob Stoops, and I’m a mob enthusiast and historian.

In today’s episode, we’re going to do our first ever interview! I’ve decided that it’s time to change things up a little bit, and I’ll give you a few of the reasons.

First, my goal is to document the real history of the Mafia in America! And I’ve come to a decision that you can’t really do that without hearing directly from the people who either lived it, or were closely connected to it.

I waffled for a long time on whether or not I wanted to do interviews on this podcast, but in the end it came down to my desire to document the history, and that means talking to people. I see each episode as a way to put together a mosaic of “the life,” and my ultimate goal is that they will all blend together to form a larger picture of the history of Cosa Nostra in America.

Second, I fully realize that my episode production is slower than many other channels. Don’t worry, I still plan to bring you the same types of episodes I have thus far with the same painstaking amount of detail, but interviews and other types of content will allow me to “fill the gaps” so to speak while I’m researching and putting together biographical or documentary-style episodes. I am (and will always be) incredibly thorough with the way I research and piece together episodes, but that takes a really long time (for example, the Smaldone episode probably took well over 100 hours).

As a result, shifting towards interview-style content will help me balance and provide more from a quantity standpoint (and they are far faster to produce), in order to give you a more consistent flow of content, while still allowing me time to do the background digging you’ve become accustomed to.

Lastly, I’ve been interested in this genre for a long time before deciding to create a podcast, and I’ve never really had any direct connections. Like I’ve said before, I’m just a small town nobody who happens to be fascinated by the mob, loves mob movies, and has had a love for history my entire life. Put that all together, and you’ve got this podcast. And I believe that making connections and hearing other voices (especially those who are closer to “the life”) lends more authenticity to the information I’m sharing on a regular basis.

So I’ve got a list of people I’d love to interview, but I’m also looking for interview ideas. And just like my episodes, my goal is a little different than most podcasts. Generally speaking, while I’m open to talking to anyone, I’d like to focus on little known stories or instances of regular people running up against the mob, living side by side with the mob, or growing up with or near the mob. This means that I won’t usually be talking to folks who are the most popular or well-known within the current ecosystem of Mafia YouTube. In fact, some of the people I hope to interview will be just regular people who nobody has heard of. If this is you, I’d be interested in hearing your story, so please email me at membersonlypodcastshow@gmail.com, and we’ll talk and see if your story is the right fit.

And now, without further adieu, we’ve got a really amazing guest lined up, so let’s get to the interview!

Interview Transcript

Coming soon.

Jacob Stoops

Host of the Gangland History Podcast

This podcast sits at the intersection of my life-long love for history, my love of mob movies, my now decades-long fascination with the Mafia, as well as my passion for content creation.